‘'Being an exchange student is awesome, I had the best year of my life''. That is what people told me three years ago. These were people who had already been abroad. They told me about how wonderful it was, and how the exchange experiences have changed them forever. I was truly inspired by their energy, and the passion they had, and I was so curious about how my year on the other side of the world would teach me my ‘'life lesson''.

Now, three years later, I am in my Senior year of an American high school. Starting this adventure brought a lot with it, saying goodbye to my friends and family and saying goodbye to my habits. With no expectations I stepped into that airplane. I was just going to be happy, appreciate what I have, be open-minded, not taking anything for granted and love everyone and everything. Nothing was going to make me upset.

Being an exchange student is an incredible experience. This year has an enormous impact on me in many ways, changing the way I look at the world and connecting me with people and events far beyond my formerly limited experience. I am extremely glad that I had the opportunity to do this year. It is a wonderful experience on multiple levels. It challenged me and expanded me intellectually and socially.

Is it easy to be an exchange student? No. But I learned to value the little things in life, such as a smile, a hug, a good conversation, getting to know people and a lot of other small things. I realized that this was the key to my happiness. Every night I would fall asleep with a good thought, and I would wake up with a positive start in the day. This also made me realize that every experience, positive or negative, brings you one step forward. There are no steps back. You learn from you mistakes and that is worth more that doing everything the right way.

The most fascinating aspect of this experience, for me, was the exposure to new cultures. I found huge difference in viewpoints. For example, Americans see life much brighter than Dutch people, they are more optimistic and positive. But also the way that Americans live, is so much different with my Dutch life.

Appreciate life, embrace what you have and accept that this is your life, and you are the one to change it. Being an exchange student, living in a different country, learning and speaking a different language, learn other traditions and cultures. We learn to accept and to be respected. We learn to be responsible and to be careful. We learn to be friendly and to be polite. Most of all, we learn how to live.