Time passes so incredibly quickly. 6 months ago I got on a plane in Boston and took a leap of faith. I changed my language, friends, family, city... Life... And now I'm here. I've spent a half of a year - a significant amount of time - living in this little country called France.
What have I achieved? I guess I'm willing to say with less reluctance that I'm bilingual. I have my off days, but the words just tumble out now. Half the time I'm not even thinking about what I'm saying, just responding. My bilingual abilities hit me hard in the face when my host brother picked me up from the train station this Sunday. He is young, he talks fast, he talks slang, and - most importantly - he mumbles. I'll have you know that I had a 20 minute conversation with him in the car and I only said "Comment?" twice. And I responded without a beat. Boom, bilingual. I've made fantastic new friends that I know I'll be close with for my entire life. I've discovered a whole new part of an amazing country. I've grown up.
Today I talked with Kara, my best friend, at lunch. We both feel like we're in a place where we've got nothing but good things ahead of us. This is the best time of our lives... We're young, we're intelligent, we've got a world of opportunities. We've got the world and our bright and shining futures at our feet.
It takes a lot of guts to take a plunge like this. How many people can say they voluntairely changed their life in a matter of a day? If you've got the itch to change your life and do something totally crazy like move abroad and go to school in a foreign language... Do it. You'll call yourself crazy, but you won't regret it.
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