The summer before my sophomore year of high school was when my family decided to
get a foreign exchange student. I was somewhat wary at first, not sure how she would fit in to
our busy life. I was expecting our exchange student to be very different from us and I never
imagined that we would become close friends. We picked up Sophie after her nine hour flight
from Germany on a hot day in August. A few weeks later, after she was settled in to her new life
in America, I began to notice how similar Sophie and I were. Though her English wasn’t perfect
and she couldn’t always understand me, we had so many things in common. I found out that we
listened to the same music, read the same books, and shopped at the same stores. Our lives were
lived thousands of miles apart, but yet we interacted like friends. It wasn’t long until we were
borrowing each other’s clothes and staying up too late on school nights, sharing gossip. Sophie
became my best friend almost overnight. Then, before we knew it, we were like sisters. We
argued about boys, about what we wanted for dinner, and especially about who was hogging the
mirror. I learned that many aspects of her life in Germany were the same as they are here. Soon
though, Sophie’s year was up and she had to go back to Germany. After weeks of trying to heal a
broken heart it occurred to me just how special a friendship we had. In just a short year’s time
Sophie went from a complete stranger, to my closest friend, to the sister I never had. Until we
hosted a foreign exchange student, I thought other cultures were so different from ours. I never
expected that I’d actually be able to relate with Sophie so well. My experience having a foreign
exchange student was the most life-changing and important one I’ve had. I learned that just
because someone lives in a different culture from you doesn’t mean that their personalities are
different. Before I lived with Sophie, I never knew how to act around people from other
countries. Now, I understand that they’re really no different from me or the average American.
My experience hosting a foreign exchange student has really inspired me to learn about other
cultures and interact with all types of people.
Megan Warner