New student, in a new school, in a new country...

I can clearly remember my childhood....growing up in a small village in the northern coast of the Central American country of Honduras was the best thing that happened to me. We had the freedom to go anywhere we wanted to go and walk to places without worrying about safety. To mention few things I did as a child, I remember my friends and I going into the river to fish, and into the forest alone to kill birds. After we would go back home and cook the stocks we had gathered with sling shots, to then organize a small “party like” where we cooked what we had collected. I did all of that from a very young age until I was twelve when I received a permanent resident visa to come to the United States.
I remember the last day in my village of Santa Rosa de Aguan before coming to the United States...my mother, sister and brother Henry were packing our luggage. Later that night we had so many visitors that came up to wish us a safe trip. I remember when my friends came by that night and for the last time we spoke about funny and great moments we spent together in and outside of school. The saddest moment was the last hugs we gave each other because that was the last time we would hangout as children.
The next day in the morning my family and I got on the bus that took us from the village to the city, where the closest airport was located. Two days after leaving my village we got on the airplane that transported us to the JFK airport in New York City directly from Honduras. At the time I was so scared, exited, confused because I was going to another country to start a “new life”. My first weeks in the US were sort of easy because I had no contact with other people that were not my family. Up to this point everything was OK without any problems. When I started to go to school, the story changed completely.
My first day in school was one of the most confusing days of my life! I remember having my homeroom teacher speak to us to tell us the rooms of our respective classes after the first period. However, I couldn't understand a thing she said because it was my first day of classes and I spoke no English. The bell rang and I remained seated and everyone stood up and started socializing and started to walk out of the classroom. I thought that was abnormal because when the bell rang back in Honduras, the teacher only said put your science books away and now take your math books. Since everyone left the room then I decided to leave the room as well. I tried to look for someone to go with but, that didn’t work. I got lost because everyone spoke in English which was for me that was a problem. As a kid I was very talkative but here I was at an American school with a communication dilemma I did not know how to speak the language so I couldn't communicate.
The hardest part was the whole process when I tried to speak in English and people would always laugh at the way I said certain words. In the beginning I would be so frustrated, so I would come home and tell my parents what was happening in school. Then my mom told me something I will never forget:
“Don’t worry about those who laugh at you, because believe it or not they are helping you without them knowing it. They are letting you know that you did not say something correctly and when that happened you should take it and blend in and laugh with them and then take it to the teacher after class to correct it.” At first I was like “What?”
But, my life changed from that conversation I had with my mother because she told all of us, my siblings and myself, that we have the power to do anything in our lives if we want it. This experience with my mother and in school was life-changing because I have learned look at negative situations and turn them into positive ones.
~N.A.

Gap Year

In the beginning of my senior year of high school, I already knew which college I wanted to go to. I applied early decision and in December the fat acceptance envelope was delivered to my house, and was promptly ripped open in excitement. Yet I had to put my excitement on hold, because before I had even applied to Wesleyan, I knew that I was going to take a year off. “Gap years” are incredibly common in many European countries, and today colleges across the US are making the process of deferring for a year easy and accessible for incoming freshmen. I simply had to write a one-page essay describing my plans for the year, and then in March I had to write up another small report about my year thus far.
There are many good reasons to take a year off before starting college—another (expensive) four years of institutionalized education. I was really eager to start college, but I didn’t want to rush into it. I wanted to have a year to myself, to work and explore the world around me, to learn on my own and prepare for university in ways besides standardized tests and meetings with my guidance counselor. I started working in a Thai restaurant the spring of senior year, and continued working and saving money through summer and into the fall when I had to say goodbye to all of my friends who left for different schools. I was worried about being on my own, and arriving at school a year later than everyone else my age, but I had my sights set on a big adventure.
In September I left on a plane that traveled from New York City to Quito, Ecuador. For almost six months I traveled around Central and South America, sometimes on my own and sometimes with new friends I had met. I decided to spend my year traveling (for as long as I could afford) because I wanted to learn more about the world and have my own experiences to draw from instead of reading information about other cultures and countries from a textbook. I also wanted to learn Spanish and put myself in an environment completely different from home and everything I was used to. I spent my first eight weeks in two different host families, taking Spanish lessons five days a week and traveling to different places on the weekend. After completing Spanish School and acquiring a knack for Spanglish, I set off on my own riding in buses and sometimes flying in planes, exploring five different amazing countries.
What I learned in my time traveling and working, I am still in the process of comprehending. I do not regret a single moment of that year, even the times when I felt scared, lost, or alone. Before setting off on my travels I thought I had an incredibly strong grasp of who I was and what I wanted to study in school. Yet after almost six months of traveling, my world was blown wide open. It’s fair to say that I learned more about myself and about life in that year on my own than I had in four years of high school. The people I met, the experiences that I had, the cultures that I absorbed, and the language that I learned are all pieces of a year that opened my mind and challenged me in ways I never imagined.
Leaving for college that following September was a lot less scary than my high school self thought it would be. Even though I was questioning all of my original intentions, I felt extremely ready to start the next four years of my life. After a year of working and traveling through countries where a college education was a lucky privilege, I was set on making the most out of every class I took. In the first few days of orientation, it was a bit hard for me to relate to my freshman class. I soon learned that college is extremely different from high school, and the grade you are in does not necessarily reflect anything about your maturity or experience. My first year of college was considerably more tame than backpacking across a continent, but it was incredibly rich with new experiences, friends, and knowledge that I was eager and ready to absorb.
~Katya B.