While other students will take this time to write about their junior years and the 3 AP classes they took, my paper will differ quite a bit. I spent the last year of my life living in Cordoba Argentina and traveling within South America. I remember being asked what my expectations for Argentina were before I left. Honestly I don’t think I could fathom the idea at the time. Yet, today I can assure you that every one of the unfathomable exportations was met. As you can imagine it wasn’t always easy being so far from home. Yet I pushed myself, knowing that an opportunity like this only came once in a lifetime. A person in my life that I respect dearly once said the following about being an exchange student; “This person must be open-minded and understanding of cultural difference. This person must possess the initiative to bravely face the whole new world, but must walk with humility, or face rejection in the world. This person must be able to overcome fear, anxiety and his/her own shortcoming, and to persist when drowning in the depths of self doubt and insecurity. Finally, this person must embrace the fact that she/he must be an ambassador, whether or not she/he is comfortable in that role.” I can assure you I walked in humility as I misplaced words and struggled to integrate into the Argentine society. Fear, the fear to fit in on my first day of school, the fear to be liked by my family, the fear of not making friends; where soon to be overcome. And by becoming an ambassador I found true love for my country; the “melting pot” which brings us together. I can assure you at times it is not easy to represent such a controversially nation especially with our roots deeply planted into the history of Latin America. This same person concluded, “That the very fact that a person would voluntarily remove him or herself from the security of his or her own culture, context, and surroundings, is to be commended.” I don’t expect to be commended. On the contrary there are people I would like to commend. To the people that pushed me to pursue my dream, to my argentine friends and compeneros that were there for me in times of need, and to my families that made me a home away home. I cannot transcribe my year into a paper, nor will I attempt to. There isn’t a day that passes were I don’t find my mind drifting off to memories of summer nights in the countryside, cold winter afternoons sipping on warm mate with friends, backpacking through the mountains, participating in peace marches in memory of the deseparicidos, and dancing tango in the plaza as music blasted from old wooden speakers. Argentina will always be my second home; the remarkable adventure of my adolescence, and the missing place in my heart.
