Abroad

It was my mom’s birthday, the 31st of July, in the year 2000. I got on a plane and arrived on the other side of the globe, in the Netherlands. This is where I would spend my next year. I had graduated from high school in June and this was the start of my Rotary Exchange year.

I was thinking back to that year, and that feeling of leaving. The whole process of the exchange had started the autumn before. I applied, with application and essay for the exchange. I had a panel interview, and I was to submit 1st, 2nd and 3rd choices of which country I would like to go and why. Everyone knew you never get your first choice. Mine was France since we learn some French in school, being a National Language here in Canada. All my choices were in Europe since I really wanted to go there. A girl from my school at the time, had just returned from a Rotary Exchange in Finland, and since there was a positive connection with a Rotary club there, I was told this could be where I end up. Then I was told it would be either Finland or Belgium. This was in the Spring sometime, I can’t remember when, but I do remember the moment when the phone call came one afternoon. I was told, not Finland, not Belgium, but it was to be The Netherlands. I remember the feeling when I heard. I was extremely pleased and excited. There was an uncertainty just in the way that I hadn’t had it on my radar in the aspect of it being a country I might live in. I told my parents and sisters, and my mom instantly had excitement and good memories to share of her love for the country when she backpacked through Europe when she was in her 20’s. Her happiness and excitement spilled over to me, and we started researching, looking at maps and sourcing guidebooks to become more familiar with the country I would be moving to.

I soon heard from the Rotary club of the City I would be residing in, and the Rotary District that coordinated the youth exchanges. There was a Visa to coordinate and correspondences between The District and the club sending me locally and receiving me in Dordrecht. Those pieces are more of a blur all these years later, but having the phone call and getting the packet of correspondence about the Dutch city and that initial curiosity and uncertainty about where I would be moving all sticks out. I am sure my parents have specific memories that stand out to them with me leaving – and taking off on my mom’s birthday, no less!

Leading up to, I also had to ensure I completed all my courses and work to graduate- I attended a self- paced high school and I was dead-set that I would not want to have to return to complete any high school work once I had a year abroad. It was more common for the youth exchange students to have completed either grade 10 or grade 11. For me, it was the most perfect scenario that I would be going after grade 12. I could still graduate with the group of kids I had gone to school with year after year, and then head off, into the sunset. I was never one that romanticized that high school would be the best years, I always knew life would really start afterwards.

Sending Love,

Devon