The Adventure Begins!

Terrifying. Exciting. Life changing. There are many ways to describe the beginning of an exchange year. Some of them are negative, some of them are positive, but all of them are important. Every person who goes on such a trip will react to it differently, so here’s me! Giving anyone who wants to listen a glimpse into who I am, and what this trip is doing for me. 

Hi! I’m Katie, a soon-to-be junior from Nebraska. People may think I’m from the middle of nowhere, but I think every place is essential and has a culture. No matter if no massive wars took place there, or no well-known paintings were painted there. Nebraska is an excellent place that invented Kool-Aid, has the only unicameral legislative system in the United States, and is one of the best zoos in the world, including North America’s largest indoor rainforest, and the largest indoor desert in the world. Compared to places in Germany, like Berlin or Munich, it doesn’t seem like a lot but it’s home, and these smaller-sounding achievements can influence things a lot. No matter how amazing the corner of the world I live in is, there are infinite corners around the globe.

I started searching for a way to see another corner- precisely one in Germany. Why Germany? Our family's existence in America hasn’t been very long. My great-grandmother Inge came over in the 1930s when a certain war began. She was ashamed. Ashamed of what her country was doing to the world, the things they believed, and ashamed of the culture that she had. She didn’t teach my grandpa or any of his siblings German. She hid that part of herself and that part of our history died out. A part of my family’s history–my history- had been lost.

My father went on an unofficial exchange trip his senior year. For a few weeks, he went to a German school, studied with our relatives, and took back traditions to engrave into our family. My favorite thing we still do to this day is to find a pickle ornament in a tree every Christmas. My hope for this program is to regain some of what we lost and maybe create a little more. Some of our family's history is gone forever but new traditions are created daily. Just like a language doesn’t typically die out; it adapts and so does tradition.

I found out about the CBYX program from my dad. He had mentioned it before because my Aunt got in but had decided not to go. I knew I wanted to learn about different ways of life and see the world. This was the perfect way. I spent hours writing the essays, editing, and rewriting repeatedly. I ended up writing 7 essays when I only needed five because I wanted to find the best essays I could do! It turns out all of the work I put in wasn’t in vain. As of the day I’m writing this, the plane leaves in about two weeks. The half-filled suitcase on the floor is ready for adventure. I’m terrified and excited; sad and ecstatic; nervous and ready. 

There are tons of people I could thank in these last few lines, but I want to thank a few specific people. Thank you Mom and Dad for always supporting me. Thank you to my Hal and German teacher (whose names I won’t put for their privacy). Thank you to my siblings who gave me great essay topics and distractions. And finally thank you to CIEE, for thinking I was enough, and I was ready for this program. After writing this post I know I am.

Bis Bald!

-Katie L.