Around the world millions of people eagerly count down towards the new year and, whilst I may be staying home to play board games with my family, I feel as though this might be a good time to reflect on what has happened this year.

If you had told me at the start of 2017 that I would now be preparing to leave the country for a year I would have laughed. I like control, I might even say I need control. Leaving all that I know means leaving everything that I have the capability of controlling.  Nevertheless, here I am today, preparing to do just that.

I’ve always known about Rotary Youth Exchange. My Dad was an exchange student in Japan after he had finished year 12 and (before the rules changed) I had considered it as something I could do after I was done with school. When I found out that you would have to still be a school-age student to go (ie. before finishing year 12) it immediately became an ‘oh well, I’ll find something else to do’ sort of thing. I’d been to a few Rotary meetings and met some exchange students but it was never something I thought was a possibility for me, so to speak. School matters to me and I had thought that exchange meant sacrificing a chance at a good final mark.

I don’t know exactly when this changed. Actually, I do but I can’t explain why or how. The evening after my first day of school this year my Dad went to a Rotary meeting. He came home and gave us all a basic run down of what went on, briefly mentioning the recently returned exchange student the club had sponsored. I think my Dad had honestly long given up on any of his kids going on exchange but he never pushed the idea. Going during school is very different to going after school and we all understood that. However something sort of clicked in my head that night,all of a sudden I felt as though it was something I could actually be a part of. And so, after my first day of school for 2017, I submitted an online ‘expression of interest’ form.

Since then I have attended an information session, completed an extensive application form, gone to several briefing days and gotten to know the first family I will be staying with.

It’s been a bit of a blur of a year to be completely honest. I spent the first half wanting to know where I would be going and wishing that the year would hurry up and finish soon. Now I’m just trying to savour the time I have left in Australia whilst doing the ‘last’s of a lot of things.

I can’t be entirely sure what the new year will mean for me exactly but I can pretty much guarantee that 2018 will be a year to remember.

Happy New Year!

Alicia