Life-changing trips

by Lara Núñez Patiño (Spain)

Making a local connection Germany

I've always felt like my shyness holds me back and makes me reject so many amazing opportunities that I come across. This story is about how traveling gave me the confidence I needed to start living my life to the fullest. When I was 16 years old my school announced a student exchange programme with a high school in nothern Germany. At first I didn't think about it at all but when my friends started talking about it I started feeling intrigued and somehow I ended up signing up for it. A week before leaving I was terrified and sometimes couldn't even sleep at night thinking about how I wasn't gonna be able to make any friends. I went with a group of about 19 students from my school but each one was assigned a partner from the other school to live with them for the week we were going to be there. My partner was Jasmin and she's one of the nicest people I'd ever met but when I first met her and her parents I couldn't get myself to speak a word except from "Hello, nice to meet you". We got to their house that first day and I went into my room almost having a panic attack. I calmed myself down and called my mom and tell her how I felt. She made me realize that I couldn't waste this amazing oppotunity, leaving my country for the first time and without my parents. I thought about what she'd said for a while and finally went downstairs to have dinner with the family and actually started talking to them and had a really nice conversation. After that I was so excited about being there and slowly felt my anxiety going away. I made so many good friends during that trip, some of them I am still in contact with. It also showed me how different it is to experience a new country living with locals rather than doing the typical tourist things. Since then I've noticed how much my confidence has been growing. Traveling is a completly necessary life-changing experience to me, I wouldn't be the person that I am today without it.