The most monumental decision I made was agreeing to be a Rotary Club Exchange Student at age 15. That meant I was going to spend my junior year of high school in a foreign country. Coming from a very small hometown, I wanted a big change. I got my wish and went to India in 1982.
This was a time before cell phones and emails. Even faxing was relatively new then. To call home, I had to request a trunk line from an operator and wait for them to call back when one was available. I subsisted on snail mail, the only kind we had. I sent letters on the thin air mail paper so I could write pages and pages with only basic postage fees.
I use this experience as my touchstone whenever I face something challenging — “I was an exchange student to India, so I can definitely do <this>”. I experienced something few others in my hometown had ever done or wanted to do. I returned with my nose pierced, a small gold ball on the right side, and my hands decorated with mehndi. I came home different, confident, bold, and determined to see more of the world.
Yes, I’d say this decision helped me grow!
2 responses to “Being an Exchange Student”
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I’m a country-shy-boy-hick from Limestone, TN. I struggled through school and barely made it. One eveing whilst riding on the back of an empty wooden wagon, after a day of loading hay and working tobacco, upon hitting a large bump on the diet country road my brain decided I wanted to go to college. The rest of me struggled, knowing that I was just a dumb hick who hated school. Then my brain decided to join the Air Force whilst i sat in a church service in our way-back-country church. I was able to do both. I joined the AF and used GI Bill stuff to pay my way to get my bachelor degree in mechanical engineering in nine years. During that time I worked inside a COMSEC vault with a redhead that I knew was way above my intellectual level. We made a pretty good team. Our lives changed during that work time. We did some excellent work stuff together. She and I made a career change at the same time that further change our lives and the lives of our families. For those things, I am thankful and I will always remember them extremely fondly and with awe. He awe??? I’m dumb and she ain’t. But, we still made a great work team. One thing…we stripped down and completely refurbished an old safe out back in the loading dock in order to save money for the government and used it for her COMSEC and my STU-III stuff. I AM PROUD OF THIS FULL AND REAL REDHEADED GREAT HUMAN!!!! Thanks for all Lisa.
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Darrell, you are and were a rock star then, now, and always! Thanks for the kind words and for reminding me about the safe project! Great times, my friend!!
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Sewn4U 
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