It’s only been a month in China, but I already feel like I’ve learned a lot about myself. During these first few weeks, I’ve found that I’m actually a stronger person than I thought. I’ve never been away from my family longer than two weeks, so I knew leaving home for four months was going to be a challenge. Of course I’m missing my family, but that sadness is overshadowed by all the fun new experiences I’ve been having in China. It also helps that I FaceTime my family a few times a week, so it doesn’t feel like I’m half a world away. Surprisingly, I haven’t talked much with my friends at all while I’ve been in China. While my friendships in Brookline are very important to me, my lack of communication with them shows I’m a more independent person than I first thought.

Another show of my strength Is how I’ve been fitting in with my new host family. I thought living with new family in a radically different country was going to take a lot of time. And at first, I was right. For the first few days when waking up, I forgot where I was and it took a few seconds to remember where I was and the decision I had made. It was hard to comprehend that I would wake up in this bed every day for the next few months. Communicating with my family was definitely a struggle for the first week or so, but I never felt self conscious about messing up my speaking. I am in China to learn Chinese, and my family knows that. So what is there to be embarrassed about?

A time where I really impressed myself was when we gave our speeches to the whole grade of 500 students. Normally, giving a speech to the many people would have been really scary for me. This was going to be my first impression to the whole grade, what if I messed up my tones? I practice as much as I could have, yet I was surprisingly calm when it came time to deliver my speech. These are just a few examples about what I’ve learned about myself during this first month in China.