About a month ago, Alice Liberatore stepped on a plane in Rome to begin her trip to America, where she would be staying for a whole year. She held her breath as the plane took off, launching her into a new life.

Liberatore is a Foreign Exchange student at Fruita Monument High School this year. She is one of four in the school, each having decided to leave the normality of their home country and brave a new one.

“My parents have always talked to me about this experience; I’ve never been sure about it until last summer, when I decided I wanted to do it,” said Liberatore. 

For her, it has always been a possibility looming in the horizon, but taking the jump is still hard. Becoming a foreign exchange student means leaving behind family and friends, for an unknown. It means having to adjust to living with a different family and to living in a new culture. Essentially, it means adjusting to a new life.

The cultural differences pose a big challenge for all foreign exchange students. According to Liberatore, the US, or more specifically Fruita, is a lot calmer than Rome. “Living in Rome I am used to a reality where people are always in a hurry, everything is so crowded and loud. Here it is the contrary: everyone knows everyone and you can find parking spots here!” 

The differences between the two countries, while some might be welcomed, still takes time to adjust to. Especially when the schools in each country are different as well. For instance, Liberatore says that the relationships between students and teachers are super informal in the US compared to the relationships students have with teachers in Rome.

Foreign exchange students also have to deal with acute sickness. Homesickness. The longing for family, friends, and a normalcy that comes with the well-known, hits foreign exchange students hard. All of them must put on brave faces as they push forward looking for the positives. For Liberatore, that means focusing on what she’ll gain from the experience. It helps her to battle the longing for her home country. 

Despite the challenges foreign exchange students face, Liberatore is glad that she decided to come to America. The journey she’s had so far has already exceeded her expectations, and she expects that it will benefit her in many ways in the future. “Even though it’s hard to be away from my family, my friends, and my country,” Liberatore explained, “I am really happy to have chosen to do this experience. I think it will help me to build a lot of life skills that will be pretty useful.”