The thing about being an exchange student...

"Exchange is not a year in a life. It is a life in a year." I find myself thinking about this quote a lot. An international exchange is so much more than just a year-long vacation. I've heard that one of the most common questions that students are asked after returning home is "how was your trip?". On exchange, you go a year without your family. A year without your best friends. A year without your native language. A year without your bed. A year without everything that you have known as normal for your whole life. Calling it a "trip" could not be more inaccurate. This is not a vacation; it is life. And every life has its ups and downs.

Let's face it. EVERY exchange student carefully selects which photos to put online and which stories to tell their friends and family back home. We have mastered the art of illusion. We make it look like every day we have on exchange is a spectacular adventure. But that is just unrealistic. Yes, we are living in a foreign country, but we are still students. We go to school. We live with families. Sometimes life on exchange is flat-out boring. And sometimes it's sad, frustrating, or difficult. But that is just part of life, no matter what country you are in! The bad days are what help us remember and charish the good ones. And let me tell you, there are SO many good (and GREAT) days. 

Although not every day is outstanding, every single day of exchange is a day in which I grow and I learn. Every time I mess up my Spanish and have to be corrected, I know I am one step closer to fluency. Every time I miss something from the United States, I learn the importance of something that I had always just taken for granted. Every time I talk to a classmate or another exchange student, I am building a closer friendship that could potentially last a lifetime. 

Exchange is such an incredible opportunity. I feel so lucky to be here in Chile. Every day, my eyes are opened to something new and I am sure that when I return home in July I will not be the same person I was when I left. Yes, it is hard. But it is hard in the best kind of way. As the saying goes, good things don't come easily.