My name is Sarah Scott- a blonde, blue eyed American who has taken on the challenge of facing the world alone, over 5,500 miles from home, at the age of fifteen.
I have been gifted the opportunity to travel for a year as a Rotary foreign exchange student.
I am-
on a great adventure as an ambassador for my country,
Learning about new cultures and customs,
Gaining independence and confidence in myself,
Strengthening my personal faith,
And teaching myself to stand for what I believe when I am alone.
When I return to the United States, I hope to have made incredible improvement in my language skills. I would like to enforce guidelines upon myself now, so that my future at home holds no fear of saying "no".
Timeline-
I departed from Boston, MA, August 3, 2017.
Arrived August 4, 2017
And my estimated return will be in July!
There happens to be a rule in Chile that all exchange students must return home before July 1st, however, I talked to a Rotary member of my club here in Chile, and I believe I can make my case to stay closer to winter vacation for the Chilean schools!
I would love to say that I am the perfect exchange student who started off strong right from the start, following my exchange duties of documentation... but sadly, I often consider living the moment more of a priority than documenting as I go. I'm working on that :) I am writing this first entry on October 31, 2017, therefore I have been in this beautiful country (Chile) for almost 3 months now. Please excuse me if my entries are a bit out of order due to the amazing experiences I have already been blessed with and feel are worthy of sharing even if the time is long gone!
I continuously have been thinking of a specific quote which I heard many times in the last few rotary meetings before my departure: "a year in a lifetime, or a lifetime in a year". Although I have only been here for a short amount of time, this quote has guided me in many tough aspects of being an exchange student. I am very passionate about learning this language, thus keeping in consistent contact with my life at home could be seen as counterproductive. As positive of a mindset I have towards leaving my language and people behind, it is not nearly as easy to do as it seems. Whenever I am struggling, I remember that quote. To me, it translates to say that years can pass by easily in the life of an average person, a year in a life is just another year. However, I have been given the opportunity to be away from everything, everyone, the language, and I have a chance to rediscover and get to know myself. That indeed is a life of its own. Therefore, why should I get caught up about the things that are happening in my school at home, or why should I be worrying about simple dramatic outbursts when in the grand scheme of things, I am living the only chance I have to live this life. I will not let it be wasted.
Another thing which has helped me when I am really struggling is my diary. I said earlier that I am not a perfect exchange student due to my lack of documentation, which for the most part, is very true. However, I developed a love for my hand crafted, Italian journal which my close friend Cammie gifted me the week before I left. I write an entry in my journal nightly and color code pen colors to each month. Thus, the documents that I have of my activities can be personalized and meaningful to me, and me alone. I began to paperclip letters, postcards, drawings, notes, trinkets, anything that I want to save, I place with the page of the event! Therefore, the pages I have finished have formed a thick book that I carry with me. When struggling, I simply look at that book and I am amazed at how much I have already used up. Time flies fast, and we don't even see it going.
My diary works the same way backwards. If I'm feeling like I don't want to go, I still have pleanty of pages to fill.
Lastly, I have been using an app that has a video per day, set up like a calander. I keep this on my phone, mostly just so that I can go back and read a journal entry, then find the date in my app and watch videos that correspond with the events of that specific day!
You may then ask- so then why are you starting a blog if you already are documenting everything-
I think there is something really beautiful about being able to access my memories no matter where I am. I can include my pictures with my words, and I never have to worry about losing my work.
Thus... why not give it a shot!!
I'll try my best to keep a steady update!
Sarah Rachel Scott
