It's not about race, it's about friendship !
Donara, a FLEX student from Armenia, shares her experiences making new friends and adjusting to her high school in Washington D.C. during her exchange year.
Hi everybody! I am Donara, a high school student from the mountainous and tiny land of Noah’s ark, from Armenia, who got the huge luck to spend her exchange year in this beautiful and hospitable city, in Washington DC. And I have my own exchange story… First of all I want to share with you the fact, that I failed my 2 tries for coming to U.S. and this is my 3rd try. But they say you are not failing, your are just finding ways that are not working. I am so glad that I failed those 2 times, because if I didn’t, I would never meet this amazing people who helped me to feel like home. Everything has some reason.
So can you imagine feelings of a teenage girl, who is having her first flight out of her country, alone, going to unknown place too meet unknown people? Do you know about expectations? And do you imagine how the same girl can feel after understanding that nothing is the same as she imagined? And I started to learn in the best school of the world( actually in the beginning of the year that was the worst school, but I will share a secret, I like this school more than my Armenian school ). So can you guess which one? High school of McKinley Technology. For a girl, who thinks that she is sure about her future profession, which is psychology, it was unbelievably hard to start learning subjects like engineering or computer application. And than we can add culture shock. And as a result life gave me some health problems and bad grades. It was being almost the middle of December and I had a culture shock for 4 months. Where is the great experience?
And by the time I was really planning to tell my parents that I am going back , suddenly everything had changed. I don’t know if it was a miracle or something like that ,but I met some amazing people. And I was closer to have a perfect exchange year. So the person who helped me the most ( I hope she knows how amazing she is) is Imani, African-American best friend, who makes fun on my strong Armenian accent, understands what I want to say when I am forgetting all the words I’ve ever learned in English and just makes me feel like I knew her in my whole life. Sometimes I am wondering, how you can met somebody from the whole another continent, nationality and race, but find yourself in that certain person. How we can think and feel the same? Honestly there are always some people who kind a don’t believe in friendship of races, but I just wanted to tell them all, that it’s not about race, it’s about friendship. Do you know that pleasure of having braids in your hair done by Afro-American best friend? Of course you don’t. But I know, believe me that’s one of the best feelings ever. Literally all the people who supported me this year where not from my race or nationality. I have an amazing Pilipino host family and the best African-American friends ever. And if somebody will still think that it’s about race, I think they better meet me and my friends.
And now I just don’t imagine my life back in my country. I don’t imagine myself without those amazing people, whose names I want to mention Imani, Malaika, Kelah, Tontalia, Raubie, Leah. I really appreciate everything they did for me. I don’t imagine my life without my non biological, but again real Filipino - American family. I can’t imagine my life without these train stations, without getting lost in the city and struggling in the engineering class. How I can survive without Chipotle’s burrito, which Malaika told me to try? And who will make fun on my accent? I will leave this city and people with the great hope deep in my heart that I will meet them again. And I promise myself that I will. After this fairy-tale I am pretty sure that I will never feel completely at home again. Because part of my heart will always be in Washington DC and in McKinley Tech. And that’s the price I have to pay for the richness of loving and knowing people in more than one continent…
