For high school seniors, graduation season comes with plenty of life changes attached. But for me, Thomas County Central High School exchange student, this change includes a 6,000-mile trip. I am leaving one home, family and friends to return to another home, family and friends.
I was born and grew up in a Central Asian country - Kyrgyzstan, but for the 2017-2018 academic year I lived in the United States, the beautiful city of Thomasville to be specific.
I have always wanted to know how people across the ocean live: what do they eat, what kind of music do they listen to, and, of course, I’ve always wanted to speak a different language. So, I began looking for opportunities and found a Future Leaders Exchange Program (FLEX).
FLEX is a unique opportunity for secondary school students from Europe and Eurasia to spend one academic year in the U.S., living with a volunteer host family and attending an American high school. In April 2017, after completing the year-long application process, I learned that I had become a finalist and would spend the next academic year in America.
Being an exchange student is fantastically interesting! Where we go and the host family we end up with are a mystery to us until time to embark on our trip. Many people can travel, but to live with a host family somewhere in Texas, among cowboys, or in Florida, a stone’s throw from the ocean, is not an opportunity everyone gets.
In August 2017, I received an email containing information about my host community, family, school and flight dates. Imagine a teenage girl who has never left the borders of her home country or flown in an airplane agreeing to travel thousands of miles from her home to live with people she’s never met. I couldn’t picture it, either, but I knew one thing: I was ready for a new experience.
On Aug. 25, after three days of flights, I finally arrived. My host family, the Chatmons, met me at the Tallahassee airport. This family has experience with exchange students. In the last 20 years, they have hosted more than 15 exchange students from different countries. I am the second student from Kyrgyzstan. From the first day until the last days of my exchange year, they treated me as their own daughter, and I, in return, treated them as my own parents.
We spent a lot of our free time traveling together to various places including Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. My favorite escapade was a cruise to the Bahamas. For me, a girl who’d never even been on a boat, taking a cruise on a 12-deck ship was a dream come true.
An integral part of my stay here was volunteerism. I worked with Hands On Thomas County and was a part of the TCCHS Key Club. I learned a lot about the town’s community through volunteering. Working with these organizations was very interesting and informative.
American high school was another story. The first few days I couldn’t understand anything. I felt like I was at the middle of the maze and would never find a way out. Day by day I got used to it. Now I love the American high school experience and will miss it very much.
The education system is very different in my country. Students do not choose their classes. They stay in the same room most of the time while the teachers come to them. We do not have a lunch and our classes finish at 1 p.m. We also do not have school buses. We walk to school.
In America students have required courses, but they also can adjust their schedules to fit their interests. The teachers seem kinder and the process of studying feels easier, especially if you really want to learn something, because you have several ways to get information: teacher, library or the Internet. In Kyrgyzstan it’s a little more complicated. Not every school has computers or access to the Internet and libraries in the countryside are rare.
Since the required classes are different, my grade level is different, too. In Kyrgyzstan students go to school for eleven years only while in America you go through 12th grade. I am a junior in America, but I am a senior in my home country and will graduate in June.
Overall, I would say the American high school experience is my favorite part of my exchange year. Thanks to the classes I took here and the teachers who had a strong influence on me, I finally realized what I want to do as a career. New opportunities have opened up before me, and I am full of ambitions.
There are some memories I made this year that are very close to my heart. I got to attend an American prom. I never had a prom and was so happy to go there with my friends. We had a great time, and it is one of the highlights of my exchange year. Another very special moment is the day I got my letterman jacket from the broadcasting department. It was a big surprise. Poppa D (dean of students Frank Delaney Jr.) gave a speech that made me cry. He said: “Yellow Jacket once, Yellow Jacket forever.” It was an honor to hear it from him. I really feel like a part of the big TCCHS family.
Also, my eyes beheld an ocean up close for the first time. Kyrgyzstan is a very mountainous country, so I never saw “a big water.” In March my friend Marion Rose Young invited me to celebrate her birthday in St. Augustine, Fla., and at the end of our trip, she and her family took me to Vilano Beach, where I saw the ocean for the first time. I was so impressed. I couldn’t hold back my tears. I am very thankful to my friend and her family for making one of my dreams come true.
The Alina who arrived in America nine months ago and the Alina who flies home in a few days are two completely different people. Along with two suitcases of clothes, gifts and books, I have a huge backpack filled with the experiences I’ve gained here upon my back.
My most important achievement is the people I met here and relationships we formed. I have very close friends, without whom this year would not be as wonderful as it is now. I sincerely believe that this is not our last meeting and our life paths will cross again. Therefore, although it’s a sad smile on my face, I am not saying “Goodbye;” I am saying, “See you soon.”
I am very happy that I got a chance to spend a year of my life in Thomasville, the city of roses. I want to thank everyone of this beautiful town. I hope to one day come back, but for now I need to continue my life journey. Who knows where it may lead me!