This e-mail is originated from a Canadian Exchange student. I really
can't say a whole lot about it. Just read it and it will get under your
skin...........................


ONE MONTH...
A year has passed and now we stand on the brink of returning to a world where we are surrounded by the paradox of everything, yet nothing, being the same. In one month we will reluctantly "faire les bisous" and, fighting the tears, say goodbye to people who were once just names on a sheet of paper and a town that was once just a dot on a map, to return to the people who we hugged and fought the tears to say goodbye to before we ever left. We will leave our best friends to return to our best friends. We will go back to the places we came from and go back to the same things we did last summer and every summer before. We will come into town on the same familiar road, and even though it has been months, it will only seem like yesterday. As you walk into your old bedroom, every emotion will pass through you as you reflect on the way your life has changed and the person you have become. You suddenly realize that the things that were once most important to you a year ago, don't seem to matter so much anymore, and the things you hold highest now, no one at home will completely understand. Who will you call first? Where are you going to work? Who'll be at the party Saturday night? What has everyone been up to? Who from Canada will you keep in touch with? Who will go "chercher" the fresh baguettes every morning for the "petit dejeuner"? How long before you adjust to eating at your normal dinner hour and how long before you realize you haven't had pastries for “gouter" in awhile? Then you realize how much things have changed. You realize that the hardest part of being an exchange student is balancing the two completely different worlds you now live in, trying desperately to hold on to everything all the while trying to figure out what you have to leave behind. In a matter of one day's traveling time, we will leave our world of bonding with host families, walking everywhere in the rain, conjugating verbs, having wine and cheese with your meal, and discovering a new culture, to a world that will seem foreign to us despite the fact that we have lived in it for 17 years. But it is different now... We now know the true meaning of friendship. We know the friends back at home who we kept in touch with over the past year will be held dearest to our hearts. We've left our little high school worlds to deal with the real world. We've had our hearts broken, we've fallen in love, we've helped each other through the tough times with the language, host families, and school that our best friends back home couldn't be there for. We've stayed up all night with the talking pineneedles, exchanging stories and speaking franglais. There have been times when we've felt so helpless being hours away from home when we needed our families the most, and there are times when we know we've made a difference in the world we live in today. One month from now we will leave. One month from now we will take down our pictures and pack up our clothes. No more going to Tim Hortons and parks to do nothing for hours on end. We will leave our friends, whose random emails and phone calls will bring us laughter and tears this summer. We will take our memories and dreams and put them away for now, saving them for our return to this world one day. One month from now we will arrive. One month from now we will unpack our bags and eat dinner with our real families. We will drive (yes, DRIVE) over to our best friends house and do nothing for hours on end. We will return to the same friends, whose random emails and phone calls have brought us laughter and tears over the past year. We will unpack and dust off old memories and dreams that have been put away for the past year. In one month we will dig deep inside to find the strength and conviction to adjust to change and still keep each other close. And somehow, on someway, we will find our place between these two worlds .
In one month. Are you ready???.....Send this to every exchange student you know. If you do, you will make them cry.