My achievement in America!

Hi everyone!  A warm greeting from Florida "The Sunshine State". It's always warm and nice living down here. I really like it! I live with Rampersauds family and they are wonderful people. They always nice to me and helped me a lot during my stay in here.

I go to Boca Ciega High School that located close by my host family house. I join lot of clubs at my school such as drama club, marine club, girlfriend club, multicultural club, HOSA (Health Occupation Students of America), and FBLA (Future Business Leader of America). I had a lot of fun in each club since each club have special different activities.

In drama club I join a musical play and attend Florida Theater Conference (FTC), while in marine club we went to Seaworld in Orlando and usually every once a month we go to the beach to collect sea shell and go fishing. HOSA and FBLA club are clubs that doing a competition in different field. HOSA in medical field while FBLA in business field and also develop us to be a good future leader. I am so glad that I got a 5th place for Medical Terminology competition in HOSA Regional District IV Conference. Even though I did not get the medal and can not go to state but I am still very happy that they still mentioned my name in award ceremony for a 5th place. I was just so surprised at that time.

I also joined FBLA district XII competition for Public Speaking II. We have to make a speech that develop from one or more FBLA goals. My host sister helped me to find the idea for my speech. She come up to the interesting idea for my speech by bringing my experiences as an exchange student. So I made my speech and put together the idea of how become an exchange students could shape us to be a good future leader and make it fit into some of FBLA goals. I was so surprised that I finally won a bronze medal for my speech! I am so happy I did it.The next day my name was mentioned in school announcement for my achievement and lots of my friend also congratulate me as well. My host family were so happy as well and they said they were proud of me.

" It is only ‘ve been a half year since I firstly come to America. Well, I realized it’s just such a short period of time to learn about this country. Now, Let me tell you about my story how I finally got to be here. I remembered that day, when I read a poster in my high school which grabbed my attention by one of it’s sentences: “Listen to the world and the world will listen to you”. Hmm sounds really interesting. So, I kept reading the information in the poster until I got it that it told me about how to be an exchange student.  At first I don’t get it why the title of the poster was “To be A Future Leader”. I wondered, how does become an exchange student could make you become a future leader? Or how does it fit into some of FBLA goal such as Develop competent, aggressive business leadership, strengthen the confidence of students in themselves and their work, Encourage members in the development of individual projects that contribute to the improvement of home, business and community, develop character, prepare for useful citizenship and foster patriotism and also Encourage scholarship and promote school loyalty.

Let me continue my story. To get selected into my exchange program was really hard, I have to pass through lots of selections and many obstacles in order to complete all of the requirements. From a thousand of people from my country, Indonesia, I finally got selected as one of the hundred that finally can go to America by Scholarship as an exchange student. My exchange programs called as a Youth Exchange and Study Program. The purposes of this program are to develop us to be a future leader and create the understanding between America with the country that has predominantly Muslim Population.

To be honest being an exchange student is not that easy. It is definitely very hard. It is not only about having fun to live in here but we have a really big responsibility to be an ambassador of our country by introducing our country to America and also learning the American Culture from the inside. It’s like learning my country from the outside perspective and learning America from the inside perspective. Because our perception toward people would totally different if we finally get a chance to live among them. It also boost up my self pride to be Indonesian by looking it from outside view and at the same time respected the American people and their culture as well.

My accomplishment might not yet guarantee me can be a good future leader. However, to take a big step as an exchange student by going across the barrier of differences and create a bridge of understanding between people are things that have to be done with lots of courage and make me one of the people that can make the change . One of my exchange friends from Turkey said “Sometimes a bunch of kids can accomplish more in very small amount of time than a country can achieve in decades. We YES students started to remove the misconceptions and initiated a movement against prejudice. We have taken a step for world peace.” We don’t know our strength and weakness yet, if we’re always stay in our comfort zone. Looking the world from a different point of view could make you understand why such a differences exist among the community.

As my journey here I was observing how does America could be such a great Nation with a great control over economic power. The key is definitely on the people that willing to create a good system to build up the nation over the past hundred years since America got their Independence. America has lots of great leader that encourage their people to make a change. Says,  Martin Luther King, Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and many other. They can achieve it because they have a courage and commitment to pursue it.

If you have a dream you have to believe that you can pursue it, yet you have to maximize your work as well in order to achieve it. I always said to my self, If he can do it, she can do it and they can do it, why I can’t. Now, I’m standing here to take a single step to make a change and I would say, If I can do it then I believe you can do it too. A single step contribution that one has done to the community could change the world. Let’s we take a step forward together, as a youth who are the one that will create our future for the next generation, and make the world as a better place for tomorrow.  

Think about this very deeply and you might want to answer my previous question: how does become an exchange student could make you become a future leader and how do my experiences could fit into some of FBLA goal.

Thank you very much."

 Me and my FBLA coordinator from my school

 The Medal!!!

Thank you AYA and YES programs also Bina Antarbudaya (my Indonesian organization) to make me one of the people that can make a change! This year would become a really wonderful experiences in my life :D


-NA