LINA IMPRESSES US ALL
Our adopted Youth Exchange student Lina Zimmermann was the guest speaker on the final night of the Rotary year. Her address proved that she is an impressive young lady and destined for a great future in whatever career she chooses.
She referred to her exchange year as "The hardest but most beautiful year in my life".
When she left her home in Switzerland 11 months ago to come to Australia, she had a mix of emotions. She was excited, she was apprehensive and she was scared about what lay ahead of her. But now, she believes she has become a more mature and stronger person for the experiences. Initially, she felt way out of her comfort zone. Normally, she would rely on her parents to do most things for her. But they were thousands of miles away and she had to fend for herself. For example, without her mum and dad, she had to do her own washing and she had to handle her own finances She realised that she couldn't spend all of her money on buying clothes. It was needed to take care of herself in various ways.
It took her a while to come to terms with a new country, new lifestyle and new friends. One of the biggest challenges was learning a new language. Even though she had learnt English for five years at school, it didn't really help in real-life situations. She found it frustrating because she couldn't follow conversations especially when it included some good old Aussie dialog.
But fast forward 11 months and she is so much more comfortable in being part of any conversation. She says she now thinks and dreams in English. The benefits of this in the future will be priceless. She even gave a speech in her class at school and the teacher praised her highly. He said it was one of the best presentations he had heard and was a great example of the benefits of the Youth Exchange program.
She now feels that she has matured as a person and is confident that she is much more self-sufficient and could handle any situation without having to rely on her parents. And, as her confidence and maturity has grown, she believes she is more tolerant, more self aware and less judgemental.
During her time in Australia, she has had many highlights. The best of these was probably climbing Ayers Rock and looking out over the vast expanse of land. It gave her an appreciation of the immense size of the country. By way of complete contrast, Lina lives in a town which is at the foothills of the Uri Alps. In the distance is the much larger Swiss Alps.
Lina is excited but also sad that she is returning home in a few weeks. She said her head says go but her heart says no.
Even though we have only known her for a few months, we will miss her happy face at the club. We hope she returns one day in the near future to say "Gday". Thanks for the great presentation Lina and best wishes for the future.
Click here to see a few more photos of Lina.