Soccer season and an exchange year

Soccer season was definitely the best time of my life. I remember going to the try-outs, not knowing anybody. I came with shaking knees and watched other girls play. “They are awesome!” I thought “I will never make the team!” Not realizing that those girls would soon be my best friends.

I remember finding out that I made the team. I was so nervous! Somehow, even though I was never really big into soccer, it became so important to me to make the team. And then I saw my name on the list. It was such a good feeling. It was w huge accomplishment for me. Not knowing how much more would happen throughout the season.

It was weird at first, spending two hours of the day with the team, hardly knowing each other. I remember the night, we voted me for our captain. I didn’t expect that at all. I didn’t think I was good enough. It felt so good to be voted by the team. I was really happy, felt accepted and just great. Our first game came soon. It was a great win! It felt awesome scoring for the team. For the school. Like winning is part of life, you have to lose, sometimes, too. So we did. But we did it as a team, always. Going out there in the rain, in the freezing cold, to play for our school was awesome.

I was looking forward to practice every single day. And with every day I wanted the season to be over less and less. But like everything had to come to an end, the season did. At the banquet, everyone told me, how much they would miss me and how much they wished I could stay. So did I. They gave me all kinds of things to remember them. My coach said: “We would never let you go without something to remember us!” And I thought: “As if I could ever forget you!”

Making the soccer team was the absolute best thing that could have ever happened to me. I am so glad that I was able to experience that.
And now a proud, gold “M” is up on my wall. “M” for Milton High School. They gave me a framed letter and everyone had signed on the frame so that I won’t forget about them. I lettered in soccer!

An Exchange year

An Exchange year is not just getting on a plane. It is not just learning a language and living with strangers. It is more than that. It is more than going to prom, buying pretty dresses. It is more than sitting at lunch with a huge crowd, and having as many friends as possible. It is more than that. Way more.

It is not just making the decision to leave home for a long time. It is the consequence that this decision brings with it. It is actually, physically leaving home, the people you love. It is experiencing how important familiarity sometimes is. And how easy it sometimes is to feel home, even so far away. It is learning to miss home, learning to love home, appreciate it. But not to be so homesick, that you can’t move on. It is more than learning how to live with strangers. But it is learning how to love strangers. It is learning how to be thankful. An exchange year is more than buying material memories because no one is there to control you, what you do and what you buy. It is learning how to make everlasting memories in your heart. It not about counting friends, or the phone numbers you got Friday night, it is about finding real friends, learning that it sometimes can be hard to find people that love you for who you are not for who you pretend to be. And how easy it sometimes is, to find people that love you, all over the world. It is more than going to homecoming or prom, just for the fact of being there, just for the fact of living in a teen movie. It is about how you reason actions. Asking why you would even consider leaving what you love and jump in a complete new world. It is about finding answers. For you. It is about growing up. Being responsible. And still not losing the child in you, and always being able to laugh.

It means realizing that everyone is different. Cultures are different. Learning how big the world is, but that we all live under the same sky. And sometimes and ocean away doesn’t feel so far away.

It is more than going away for missing a year of hard schoolwork, or because you are tired of parents controlling you. It is more than doing things you have to do. It is finding the motivation to do it in order to accomplish what you want. But it is more than motivating yourself, it is motivating others. It is learning how precious every second is when your friends start counting the weeks, days and minutes until the summer, until you have to go. It is learning to see the beauty in places you discover, actions you see and people you meet.   

It is learning how to love. Love the things you have, and you don´t have. It is about having fun and learning that fun doesn´t always mean to party. It is about laughing and how much just a single smile can mean. It is learning how to care. How to think. How to love. Simply how to feel. It is about being happy. And about making others happy. It is finding yourself, somewhere in a huge, hectic crazy world.
And one day you are going to get off a plane, where ever life will take you. You will step outside. Into not knowing. Into your future. Into your life.

Liebe Grüße, Ellen