When he was in 10th grade, my son came home from a school presentation one day completely absorbed by the possibility of spending the following year as a student in France. It sounded exciting to me, but I told him that he would have to take care of the application, essays, and references on his own which, to my astonishment, he did. His glee when he received his acceptance to the program was enough to carry me through the next several months of doubt -- that, along with my memories of myself at age 17, and my recollection of how intensely formative that period is for the rest of one's life.
It was to be a year of extremes. As I've written before, his group was to depart Logan Airport on September 12, 2001, so when he boarded an Air France jet at JFK several days later, my anxiety level was sky-high. We faced major challenges as a family at home that year and then, due to September 11, broke into two pairs to make our own Christmas flight to see him. He had a loving and active French family, with a wonderful mother and sons just older and younger than he was, but he had his challenges, too. It wasn't until at least the next year that he acknowledged having experienced the typical student-abroad crisis in October - the "oh-my-God-what-have-I-done-how-will-I-survive-this?" moments of loneliness and fear. But he also played soccer and made friends and became a French-speaker and grew to adore his family.
He took this photo of himself outside his school when he made a return visit last summer. He was nervous about seeing his French parents after a two-year absence but, as I knew they would, they all spent a joyous couple of days becoming reacquainted. I think he knows now that he has two homes and two countries. It's too bad that there are tensions between our nations at the moment; fortunately, high school students are capable of more generosity, optimism, and far-sightedness than certain of their elders.
9 comments:
Ah, I really enjoyed this. You must be so proud! {Of Course!}
V
That is awesome. I am glad that he had a good experience. Both of my sisters were exchange students to France but I was always too much of a home-body (I knew I'd get too homesick). Still, I admire the bravery of the kids who spend time living in a foreign land.
What a great opportunity!
I love this picture~ It says alot~
Thanks for sharing.
This was a great idea for an assignment, very interesting.
TJ
http://journals.aol.com/paisleyskys/PaisleySkys/
The first of many International adventures for him. Great picture.
A great picture! I would love to host another exchange in my house. We had a Swedish au pair for a year. She is tangentially related to my dh -- second cousin once removed or something like that -- but she is forever part of our immediate family. It has been too long since we've seen her.
:::: headed off to check weekend assignment ::::
We hosted a student from Nicaruagua for two months--it was an incredible learning experience for us. There are still major tensions between the two countries, but love transcends all boundaries, doesn't it?
What a great experience for your son, and I love the self portrait. I'm sure he has moments of missing home and family. He must be mature beyond his years. Sounds like he had a great host family in France.
I think the "tensions" betweeen our two nations are only in the minds of certain Neanderthals who jumped on the "freedom fries" train a couple years ago. Even Bush himself has tried to "make nice" to France in the past few months...though it made we want to vomit. I would love to go to France. I wonder how much help my few remembered fragments of high school French would be.... Lisa :-]
GREAT ENTRY
dEREK
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