Imagine boarding a plane, alone, and at takeoff everyone and everything you have ever known disappears into the clouds below the silver wings, not to be seen again for another year.
Sounds scary, doesn’t it?
In fact, more than 2,000 teenagers worldwide willingly do just that every year, and I am one of them.
My name is Maxwell Nelson. I am the Rotary Youth Exchange Florida outbound student to Chile. For the next 11 months, I will be living in the city of Talca, Chile, with my host family, attending the local high school and experiencing life in an unknown and unexpected culture.
All this is thanks to Rotary International, whose global projects include not only business networking and youth exchange, but also philanthropic works such as End Polio Now.
As a 2015 graduate of the International Baccalaureate program at Nease High School, many people ask why I would choose to “throw away” an entire year before college. Yes, my peers are busy preparing for places like Wharton, Brown or UF, but I chose the road less traveled.
As an exchange student traveling on a student visa, I am required to attend school — I can be deported if I don’t. While my assigned Catholic school surely will be a new experience, I hope to do most of my learning outside the classroom. Also, I cannot wait to become fluent in Spanish, a language that I have studied for many years, beginning with the LEE Spanish program at Cunningham Creek Elementary.
The few weeks [before my departure], I [spent] wrapping up preparations for my 4,580-mile journey. Living abroad presents a daunting task. My application process for RYE Florida began last fall, and since I have attended two orientations and language camp, presented at Rotary meetings, and painstakingly completed the short novel known as a visa application form. After a background check and fingerprinting, I traveled to Orlando in August to make my personal appearance at the Chilean consulate. Expecting an intensive interview at a cold, uninviting office building, it was quite the opposite. Instead, I found myself simply signing a few documents at the practice of a Chilean-American doctor, in between his patients. I was cleared for takeoff on Aug. 21.
Each month, I will be sharing with you, the readers back home, my trials and tribulations, and possibly some epiphanies, so you catch a glimpse of life in this long, skinny country to the south. In 30 days, you will hear from me again. By that time, I will be immersed in a sea of new and exciting tastes, sounds and smells. I will have felt the joy (and awkwardness) of being embraced by a family with whom I can barely speak, and I will be loving every minute of it.
How does one successfully pack for an entire year, you ask? Fortunately, school uniforms are required, so I do not have to pack as many clothes as one might think. Nonetheless, fitting everything into my suitcase proved trickier than Tetris on expert difficulty.
Thank you to RYE Florida District 6970 for this opportunity, and to The St. Augustine Record for allowing me to share it with you.
Until next time, or as they say in Chile, “hasta luego.”
*Also published in The St. Augustine Record
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