THINGS I LEARNED,
AND I’M LEARNING EVERY DAY,
AS AN EXCHANGE STUDENT
My adventure started on
August 12th, when I left home, family, and friends to live in a city
8000 km away. Now that it’s been three months since I arrived here, I can say
that I’m learning and growing so much out of it. Here are some of the things I
consider to be most effective about this experience:
1. You can
do it.
If I think about the last
night with my family, or the arrival at the airport, when I was crying so hard
that my dad gave me his hanky (that I now keep under my pillow when I go to
sleep), I still have goose bumps. I felt like a little girl. I wasn’t sure I
would have made it. But I got by fine. I learned to deal with my emotions and,
especially at first, with nostalgia, but now I’m not scared anymore and I’m
enjoying every single moment here.
2. I am
getting to know myself.
I am doing something for
the first time every day. It is a new life, and experiencing something new
helps a lot when it comes to self-knowledge. I am learning to take my time and
reflect on who I am, becoming aware of the things I like the most and, at the
same time, of those I don’t like at all, or understanding what I am good at and
what I could do better instead. I can see my flaws, strengths, and weaknesses
more clearly now, and I believe this allows me to be a better person, cause I
know my limits and I challenge them from time to time.
3. Most
people are nice and kind.
No matter if they are
friends or perfect strangers, they do not hesitate to help, whenever I need.
And I love the community, where people support each other and organize
fundraising events where you get to help the needy and, simultaneously, you
meet new people, in a warm, friendly environment. This is something I’d like to
bring to Italy with me, because there’s no better feeling than the one you get
when you do something for someone else.
4. Home is
where heart is.
My host dad, as soon as we
got home the first day, told me that “This will be your house for the next ten
months, please feel like you are at home, because you are not a guest but you
are family”. I think this was one of the best things he could have said,
because I got to enter our house with the perspective of a girl who is coming
into her own home. I leave here a piece of my heart every day.
5. It’s the
little things.
I didn’t mean to, but I
often took things and people for granted, forgetting to be grateful and to
rejoice moments. Since I’ve been here, I say thanks more often than not, and I
show my appreciation, because people’s presence is significant enough for me to
thank them. Before going to bed, I make a list of the things that made me happy
during the day, and I often find myself to be enthusiastic for my first
pancakes ever, or for a big smile I received. These are only examples that can
hardly represent how lucky I am. I’m so grateful for the moments and the faces,
the laughs and the tears in my life. Because they made me who I am and led me
to where I am. And now I take the occasion to thank those who are here.
6. I don’t
hide my feelings anymore.
I want to come as I am,
follow my heart, trust my intuitions. And, most importantly, I talk about
whatever concerns me. It’s not something I wasn’t used to, as I spent a lot of
time talking with my family back in Italy about everything I was thinking
about, but I was afraid of not being able to do the same here. I was wrong.
Host families are wonderful people who are so interested in your feelings and
emotions, that they will always listen to you, whether you are facing a big
issue or you simply want to share opinions. They’re just all you need.
7. Finally,
I learned something about my life in Italy.
Being far from my family
and country made me realize how much I love them. They say that you will really
appreciate something only when you lose it, and, in this case, I can only
agree.
Now, being sure that I’ll
keep learning more and more during my stay here, I want to conclude, leaving a
quote that you may all know, but that is always inspiring, at least to me.
"Twenty
years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do
than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe
harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."
-- Mark Twain
Chiara Muzio
