Well, not really. . .There were lions, camels and penguins. . .but the first one sounds better. . .That and I just got home from school, which means I just got off my AMAZING push bike that makes me feel like I'm in the Wizard of Oz. It's ancient and squeaky and you sit upright with a straight back when you're riding it so I feel like the evil witch that's come to steel Toto from Dorothy in the black and white bit of the Wizard of Oz. . .hence the "Lions, Tigers and Bears. OH MY!" that's like my favorite line out of that movie. . .anywho. . .getting down to business. Last Monday I participated in a little competition called Lions Youth of The Year. It is a competition put on by Lions Clubs all across Australia and you go to the Lions meeting where you read out a five minute prepared speech as well as answer two impromptu questions with two minute answers. I felt as if I did extremely well, but as I am an exchange student and it is a quest for Australia's youth of the year, I went in to it knowing I couldn't really win. And I didn't. My mate Lucy did. Here's my speech. I was rather proud of it so, yes, you have to read it :)
Rotary and Lions have long maintained that some of the best ambassadors can be found among the youth, a belief that is validated every year by 7,000 Rotary Youth Exchange Students who promote the cause of world peace in 80 countries around the world.
The Rotary Youth Exchange program, like others of its kind such as Loins Youth Exchange, is about learning, understanding and accepting a foreign culture. But it also provides a window to one’s own culture through the presence and actions of youth exchange students in their host counties. Exchange students help to put a name, face and personality to the people of a country. Essentially, one-on-one exchanges help people on all sides to separate the people of a country from the government of a country. As a result, these exchanges create bridges between the people of the world, promoting world understanding and peace.
I am proud to be one of these global peace agents.
I have spent the last 6 and a half months living in Australia representing the United States of America as a Rotary Youth Exchange student. I am 16, and thus far I have lived with two host families and am attending an Australian High School. I have been lucky that English is a common language between the USA and Australia. It has made immersing myself in this new culture so much easier. Though, at times, I feel I am missing out on a large chunk of the youth exchange experience by not learning a new language. However, over the last 6 and half months, I have seen myself grow and change in ways that I never could have imagined. I feel as if who I am here and now is who I’ve always wanted to be.
Living away from home in a foreign culture at a young age is a transformative and challenging experience, one that I will never forget. There is a nothing like it, it is arguable that once a person is of a certain age, the opportunity for such an experience is lost for ever. Young people are fresh, and the world still holds some magic for us. I believe that the inexperience and naivety of youth is their greatest asset, because it makes them daring and fearless. This may drive parents crazy, but it is this spirit that makes the students fully embrace the experience of youth exchange.
Globalization has become quite a buzzword. Youth Exchange is globalization at its best. For it allows youth to reach into the heart and soul of other people and other cultures, insisting that there is a way to understand, or at least set aside, the differences that separate us as human beings and as nations. The result is an underlying notion that suggests we must make the entire earth our home and that is globalization. Both the Rotary Youth Exchange and the Lions Youth Exchange programs give young people a chance to experience the breadth of the world at a time when they will feel it most deeply and embrace that feeling personally.
Once you have lived and actively participated in a foreign culture, it is no longer just a far-away place. Every time I turn on the T.V., I don’t see the news reports with the same degree of detachment that I used to before I made friends in all corners of the globe. The gap closes between the television and me; I remain personally involved as well as globally connected.
Australia is going to change me forever. It already has. For you in the audience who don’t know me, this statement certainly lacks power. But think back, if you will, to a time that, for whatever reason, affected you so deeply that even now it springs clearly to mind. Think of a dozen of those significant times and of the people who embodied them. Think back to the images in your mind and the memories in your heart. You can quickly see how it is impossible to imagine who you would be if all that hadn’t happened to you. It is impossible for me to know who I would have been if I were not here, experiencing and immersing myself in this new culture. Australia has altered the course of my life and will forever change how I perceive the world.
Before I left the States, the world was so big. Going anywhere seemed like a huge task that would be near impossible to achieve. Now that I have been so far from home and met so many people from so many places, I realize how small the world truly is. My friends in Germany are only a plane flight away and Brazil is practically my neighbor. Coming on this exchange has made me want to join the Peace Corps, something I would never have even considered before I left. There are so many people who are less fortunate than me in this world, and I have realized that it would take so little for me to help them.
In the future I hope to return to Australia as well as see many other parts of the world. I also plan to host exchange students and become a member of the Rotary Organization. Not because I will have been asked to do so, but because I have a debt to pay for the incredible experience I have been given by Rotary. I want to continue to be involved in Rotary Youth Exchange to help future students to have a life-changing experience like only Youth Exchange, whether it is with Lions, Rotary, AFS or EFS, can offer, so that they too can open their hearts and minds to others around the world.
Long one eh?? :) That's where the Lion comes from, Lions Youth of the Year :) haha
This is a photo of my competitors, Left to Right we have; (top) club President..............., Tim (only male competitor) (bottom) Amy (best public speaker award), Lucy (overall winner), Me (Yankee exchange student), Gennaeve and Kat.
My next adventure is where the Camel come in. On Friday night, we went to a place called Victor Harbor. It's on the Fluerier Peninsula, about 2 hrs from Adelaide. It's a beach town with a nice coastal bit and and Island that you can walk to. This island is about 1.5 k's around and has the little Fairy Penguins living on it. Anywho, before walking across the causeway to the island, I rode a camel on the beach. It's now my life goal to ride a camel on EVERY continent. Wish me luck :)
This is a photo from Granite Island looking back at Victor Harbor. Absolutely gorgeous.
And this where the Penguins come in :) lol
Then, because Andrew is SOOOO amazing. . . Somehow, a four hour car drive took NINE hours. . We drove along the Coorong which is this MASSIVE, NEVER ENDING expanse of beach (literally stretches on for 100's of K's) We stopped once, which was good, cause by the end of it, i was ready to stab Andrew every time he went to turn off the main road. . .damn host parents trying to show the exchange student more of Oz. . . :)
