“Come have fun,” my friend Nikki said, “It’s your last night home, and it’s prom!” ‘Will she stop reminding me?’ I thought. The nerves had set in about a week ago when the reality of the situation occurred to me. I was going to leave the country without my parents for the first time tomorrow. I didn’t feel ready to take on this task at all. Sure, there were a handful of meetings explaining “everything we needed to know” and a big packet that was supposed to prepare us for this life-changing trip; however, even after all of those meetings and multiple reassuring e-mails to my nervous parents, I didn’t feel as though I was ready to do this.
When I heard that we were required to take a foreign language in sixth grade, I was ecstatic. I had already spoken a foreign language at home and I couldn’t wait to learn another one. It was a great feeling; communicating in public in another language so that no one else could understand you. We had the option of choosing between French and Spanish, and I chose French. I still don’t understand how a fifth grader could blindly choose between two languages they had little to no knowledge about; nevertheless, I am so thankful I scribbled French on that little piece of paper.
After six years of taking French, I felt incredibly unprepared when I met my host family. It was as though I left those six years at home, and all I could utter was a bonjour with a very noticeable American accent. For two weeks I would be living in a house with a French family who barely spoke an ounce of English; my only form of communication was to speak in French. At times I felt so trapped; the only thing I wanted to do was speak English. Homesickness set in and the only place I felt comfortable was in my room, alone. During this time of isolation, all I thought about was my family back home and how much I missed them, especially my mother. She did everything for me, and for the first time in my life I was all alone.
As hard as it was to be away from my family in a foreign country, the whole experience was extremely rewarding. In just two short weeks I felt as though I matured so much more than my whole high school career combined. I was put in situations that I had to push myself in further and harder than I ever have. I did everything independently for the first time; it wasn’t easy for me, but it had to be done. If I can walk through the streets of Paris at night without my mother, I know for a fact that I am ready for college and the real world.