exchange student

“And once the storm is over, you won’t remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won’t even be sure, whether the storm is really over. But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm, you won’t be the same person who walked in. That’s what this storm’s all about.”
― Haruki Murakami It was a couple days after school had started my eighth grade year and I was standing in the Minneapolis airport with a huge sign that said Welcome Jocelyn. I had spent hours making sure that the sign was perfect: that the letters were all symmetrical and there was just the right amount of glitter and color. You are probably wondering why I spent so much time on a silly sign. But this was the first thing that Jocelyn was going to see when she stepped onto Minnesota soil. Maybe I should back up and explain who Jocelyn is first. Over the summer my family got a call asking if we would host a foreign exchange student for three months. It was a no brainer my family all agreed it would be a great opportunity plus my friend had done it the year before and we instantly became best friends with her foreign exchange student Paloma. My parents thought it would be good for my sister and I to learn about another culture first hand. While I had imagined Jocelyn and I becoming friends: going shopping together, staying up late talking about nothing in particular, tubing up at the cabin, hanging out with my friends, and playing volleyball for the crusaders. That was why I wanted everything to be perfect including the sign. I was so nervous waiting for her I watched the clock slowly tick away until it finally reached 6 oclock the time her plane was supposed to be landing. There were probably twenty other families who all waiting eagerly like me to meet the new person who would become part of their family for the next three months, so when the foreign exchange students came down the escalator there was chaos. At first I couldn’t see Jocelyn then out of the corner of me eye I say a girl who was about 5 ft 4 in with long brown hair and dark chocolate brown eyes walking towards my family. This was Jocelyn.
The first couple of days were fine I showed her around my school and introduced her to all my friends. Then she gradually started to pull away. It seemed that she did not want anything to do with me. No matter how hard I tried, she never seemed to be comfortable in our home. Unfortunately all the plans I had made and thought we were going to do together would never happen. We barely ever talked to one another, but when she did it was only to degrade me and make me feel worthless. I never knew what I did to her but she would always try to put me down and get me in trouble for things I never did. She would tell me I was fat and ugly and that I would never go anywhere in life. I was afraid of this girl, she told my dad multiple times how much she hated me and wished I would just go away. Also Jocelyn was a continuous liar. She lied about not knowing her father telling us that he left her when she was little due to a drug problem and then we later learned she sees him once a week and was the one that supported her to come over to America in the first place. It seemed that every time she talked her stories would never add up. I tried to be nice to her I thought maybe she was just homesick and this phase would eventually end; however, it continued on for the whole three months. I finally had my breaking point one morning at school. I had realized a few days earlier that my ipod had seemed to be missing. Since Jocelyn and I shared a room I asked her if she had seen it. She just gave me a dirty look and told me that she hadn’t I believed her and kept looking eventually I gave up because I couldn’t find it. At school her backpack was sitting open and a pink sparkling object caught my eye. I did a double take It looked just like my ipod case so I bend down and picked up her backpack. It was my ipod along with some of my lotion and a couple of my necklaces. I could not take it anymore I went up and confronted her. She denied ever taking them but I knew it was her. We started arguing and then arguing turned into yelling. People in the hall stopped and watched the scene unfold. Finally the teachers had to intervene before it got really out of hand. After that the teachers and principle noticed a change in my attitude and talked to my parents about putting me in counseling. I didn’t want to go talk to a person about my feeling even though my parents pushed me to from that day on I tried to avoid Jocelyn as much as possible and just get through the next couple of weeks without making a scene again.
It was a hard time for my family; we fought constantly. I am not usually one to cry, but I have to admit I had a few breakdowns during the time she spent with us. I learned that I have to stand up for myself and not take to heart what other people think of me. I know I have became a stronger person because of how I persevered through this experience. Even though my family fought profusely while Jocelyn was here, afterwards we became closer and stronger as a whole. I am glad we decided to host a foreign exchange student; I know now how truly blessed I am to have my family. I presume I won’t be hosting any foreign exchange students soon. But in some ways I am grateful to Jocelyn, because of her I became who I am today.