Before I start explaining why I want to do this exchange year, I’d like to introduce myself. Hi, my name is Suus and I am 17 years old. I live in a small town in the Netherlands and I have lived there my whole life. I go to school there, I work there and almost all of my family lives there. My friends however live mostly in other towns close to mine. Almost every weekend we hang out on Friday or Saturday evening. My best friend is Bo and I see her almost every day. We go to the same school and are even in the same class. We hang out often after school and sometimes even make homework and study together. On Saturday I have a job. I work in a bakery shop where I sell bread and other pastries. I have worked there for almost 2 years now.

In my free time I like to dance. I dance twice a week. On Wednesday evening I have classic ballet and on Thursday I have jazz ballet. One thing I can’t live without is music. I absolutely love listening to music and singing the songs out lout. I think my family sometimes get’s annoyed from all the singing :). I listen music while I study, shower or bike to my friends. Even right now while writing this letter I am listening to music. My all-time favourite artist is Taylor Swift. Yeah a bit basic, but I don’t care. I even went to her concert in Amsterdam with my cousin and her parents. It was amazing and I loved every bit of it. I also enjoy reading and watching movies and tv shows. I like all sorts of books and movies. From romance to fantasy. I also really like Disney movies and marvel movies, but my all-time favourite movie series is The Hunger Games. Sometimes I watch movies alone, but I also really like a movie night with my parents and little sister.

Family is really important to me and I’m glad I’m so close with mine. Therefore I find family time really important and fun, so I hope my host family finds it as important as me. I still have both my grandparents and I try to visit them whenever I can. When me and my sister were little they used to babysit us when both of our parents were at work. Every Saturday morning ever since I can remember we visit my mother’s parents and her brothers and my cousins are also there. For my birthday every year I go shopping with my grandma and grandpa. From my other grandparents I can chose an activity for my Birthday. Like going to a museum with them or going to the movies. I have great memories I made from these gifts and look forward to it every year.

When I told people I wanted to do an exchange year in America the question I often got was, why? I think this is such a personal question and I find it actually kind of hard to explain. The first time it was brought up I was at an education conference and my mom was the one who brought it up. We were waiting in line for a personality test at the conference and we were talking about my uncle (my mom’s brother). After he finished high school here in the Netherlands, he went on an exchange year in Japan and my mom said: ‘hey, that’s also something you can do.’ And I was like yeah indeed, but I don’t want to go to Japan that’s something I know for sure. Lucky for us the organisation Information planet was at that conference and we went to their stand. We talked about the possibilities for an exchange year and going to America was what immediately popped in my head. But why? Well the language is English and I love the language. It just sounds so much prettier than Dutch in my opinion. I read in English, I watch tv in English, I learn the language in school, I use it to communicate in other countries with different languages. The language is all around me and because of that I can speak it and understand it, so the language was one of the factors I chose for America. But that is of course not the only factor. I watched a lot of movies where there were images of the American high schools and honestly it looks so much more fun than here in the Netherlands. The football games, the typical lockers and the school lunches. It looks like something unreal and because of that you have the desire to experience it yourself. And well that possibility becomes reality. I don’t want to just experience an American High school, but I want to get to know the culture. And what is a better way to get to know a culture than to actually live there among the common people. After the talk at the conference we made an appointment for an orientation talk at the office of information planet. We went there a week later and they told us more about the exchange year. Of course they didn’t only talk about the amazing things you see in those movies, but they talked about reality to. About how it isn’t just something you do. You have to think about it. But I already did. After the conference it wouldn’t leave my mind. I talked about it with my parents what it would mean if I went away for such a long time on my own. Cause that is in the end the reality. You go away from your family, your friends, your home, your comfort zone. You have to do this on your own. I think this is going to change me in a good way. You learn how to be more responsible and how to do things yourself. Of course you get help, but in the end you are the one that’s going to do it. I hope I get to know myself better in this journey.

At school we had to do a test to find out what job fits you and what they always ask with such tests is what your qualities are. I find that such a hard question because I don’t know. Okay I do know that I am creative and I like to help people, but I have this feeling that I just haven’t got to know myself fully. And I think this exchange year is going to help me with that by being on my own doing something I really want. I think living with a complete different family for a year is something really special and a bit scary at the same time. Because you have lived with your own family your whole life and you have known them your whole life. In this exchange year you are going to have a whole new family and I think that is such a cool thing. So I really hope I get a family who likes me and who I like. I also think it would be so nice if I got extra siblings. I have a sister and honestly I wouldn’t know what to do without her (but don’t tell her that :). It is nice to not be the only child in a household. With siblings you have someone who got your back and who you can do things with. Like I said before in this letter I find family time really important, so I hope my host family finds that to. Just watching a movie together or showing me things of the country would be nice :). I also look forward to making new friends. You can’t have enough friends and it would be really fun to have friends with another culture. You can learn from them and friends are the ones you make great memories with. I think I said everything I wanted to say, so thank you for reading!