We are
We are leaving everything we know, everything we think we know, and everyone we knew. We are leaving our friends, our families, our pets, and everyone else we ever knew.
Your high school friends you thought you knew, the ones who you sat by you at lunch and in your classes; these people may or may not keep contact. That is how you find out your true friends. I know it's harsh, but it's true. That is how it goes.
We are leaving our families. The people who have loved us, will continue to love us, and will miss us before we even get on the plane. We are leaving them, but we won't be disconnected from them. We are crazy to do it, but it will help us grow up and discover what we need to about ourselves on this trip.
Out of all of the people I talk to who are also on this exchange have something, someone, and some place they will miss. Yes, we are crazy, but we are doing this for a reason.
My own reason is that I suffer from Fernweh, or the feeling of homesickness for a place you have never been to. I have been to Japan once before, and I miss it. Even if it was only a ten day trip, I miss it like it had been my home for my whole life. So that is my crazy reason, if you are a Rotarian post what your reason for doing all of it, for going through the paper work and nerves, to get to where you are going.
So yes, we are crazy. But it will be worth it for many of us.
I am going to miss my senior year. I must be crazy.
I am going to miss my senior prom. I must be crazy.
I am going to miss my senior homecoming. I must be crazy.
I am going to miss my senior graduation walk. I must be crazy.
So what?
I can be honest and say that those things don't mean much to me. I am good and dandy without these things. I am setting out into the world, and if those things above and more are my price to do it, fine.
This is a trip, that to most of the outbounds heading out, will change our world. Will change our views on just about everything. I have not heard a single rebound say that they didn't learn something and not gained something from their exchange.
Yes I will miss my family, don't get me wrong. I love them, and without their support I wouldn't be writing this blog, but they are supporting me to go. They are going to miss me more than I will ever be able to understand, but they love me enough to let me go.
They are the crazy ones.
I will miss my friends, they have supported me through school and Rotary itself. My Rotarian friends have become a part of my family, I will miss them sorely. I will miss the normality of my high school friends, but they are growing up and so am I. This is okay. We all have to sometime, I just hope this trip will show me that there is more out there than the life I have been living so far.
We, as Rotarian Youth, usually want to become a member of host's country. We are to learn about them, become family members with them; we are to become a part of their culture as best as we can, and we have to do this without losing our minds to culture shock and homesickness.
We do this because we want to. We are willingly crazy!
No one forced us onto this adventure. No one will be strapping us into the plane seat with no escape. We are doing this craziness because we want to.
So, to sum it all up. We are crazy, but a good crazy. We are expanding our horizons a bit further than America. We are going international, growing up, and learning lessons while we do it. All because our loved ones were crazy enough to let us go and do it.
They deserve a big thanks than we could ever give them.
See You Soon
Mata chikaiuchini
また近いうちに
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