Personal Narrative: My Year In Bolivia

In the world around us, everyone is different. Whether it be something small or something big, we all have problems trying to comprehend how people can be different for us. They say that the best way to understand a person is to put yourself in their shoes, to live their life so to speak. My junior year of high school I did just that. I was rotary youth exchange student in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. We as human being avoid change like the plague, but when you face it head on it can be one of the best experiences of a life time.

My year in Bolivia started off as one of the hardest things I had ever done. I left behind my settle and my home culture to immerse myself in a completely different one. Giving everything up wasn 't the hard part. The hard part was adjusting to the new things. They say that you go on exchange and everything is so different, but yet it is really similar in the big ways but completely different in the small ways. I remember having to learn how to say hello, and greet people. Trying so hard not to mess up every time I tried to tell someone that I simply wanted a glass of water or asking where the bathroom was. The language barrier was a difficulty that I quickly over came over though. I was pushed to my limits every time I accidentally offended someone and they would get angry with me or my host mom would yell at me because I said something completely wrong and disrespectful but unintentionally. I would always have to back track and start over, patients became a huge role in my life. I learned to listen more clearly and continually think about what I was going to say, and if it would offend someone or appraise them. I had mastered this art and began to work on the next

When it came to my year abroad I no longer had my parents to fall back on if I made a mistake. I had to learn to grow up and take care of my own issues and solve my own problems. From the ridiculously long visa process to the simple day to day problems that everyone wants to talk about with their parents. I learned to become more independent than I already was.

I am forever grateful to Rotary International for the opportunity that they gave me. I was sent to Bolivia a shy caterpillar who never really understood what it was like to live, but I came back a person who had indulged in almost all the world had to offer and became a new person I never thought I could be. I now understand what it’s like to step out of your comfort zone and put yourself in a complete new environment that you have to adapt. Change is scary but if you have the ability to adapt to it, it 's not as scary as it