How AFS Affected Me

Going on exchange was a life-changing experience for me. For the first time in my life, I was an independent being, fully responsible for myself and my actions. Having this freedom allowed me to discover who I am and decide for myself what I really value. Going on exchange put me in a limbo between my host country and my home country, and the discrepancies between the two cultures allowed me to find my own culture, in a way. Going to a country where everything had a different meaning and value meant adopting those things as true or normal while, at first, still believing in the values of my home country. Having been immersed in two cultures really put the social and cultural norms of both societies into perspective for me because I began to question both sets of principles at once. I saw how the people in Switzerland would do things in a completely opposite way as the people in the US, and from my viewpoint I was able to see the good and bad in each. It gave me the ability to evaluate the goods and bads in my own life and morals as well. I am now a better judge of my surroundings because I have grown accustomed to changing my mind about things.

Being a better judge of things has allowed me to become the kind of person I've always admired. Now that I have a more concrete life outlook, I am more able to speak about myself. Before going on exchange, I was always a little shy, and I now realize that it may have been because I wasn't quite sure what I thought about everything. I wasn't able to be social with everyone because I wasn't sure about who I was, and wasn't able to properly judge my surroundings because I didn't know what to think about them. Now that I've gone on exchange and have experienced some sort of cultural limbo, I know who I am, and what I want. Now I can be the person who speaks up for things I believe in, and talk about the things that are important to me to people outside of just my family and close friends. I feel like during exchange I became my own person. But still, throughout this change I'm still the same person I was when I left Hawaii. I have a new outlook on life, but my personality has remained the same. It's interesting to see how I've changed so much, yet have remained the same.