It's a non-profit, educational organization made up of students from
25 countries.
It's
standing up on stage in front of thousands of people with nowhere to
hide.
It's being homesick and going out with someone else's mother.It's
finding out the best way
to help yourself is by helping someone else.
It's making friends you will never forget.
It's needing a hug when you
feel everything is going wrong, but instead giving one because
you
found someone who needs it more than you do. It's going out into the
audience and talking
to an elderly woman, a young married couple,
teenagers, and little kids all at the same time.
It's having a host
sleep on the floor so you can sleep in the bed.
It's living with 120
others, 18 hours a day, learning tolerance, consideration and essentially
how to get along.
It's learning how to take care of yourself, growing
up fast and becoming selfreliant. It's extending
your education outside
the four walls of the classroom and learning instead 26 hours a
day.
It's having your hostmother cry when you leave, your host brother
wanting to come on the bus.
It's really appreciating your parents, hot
meals, your own bed. It's a feeling of accomplishment.
It's doing
something about a matter that really bothers you instead of sitting on
your butt and complaining.
It's realizing you learn through listening
and not exercising your mouth.It's communicating with a smile
or a
touch when you don't speak the language. It's being mentally and
physically exhausted
but still getting up each day eager to face the
challenges that you may face.
It's singing.It's dancing. It's
understanding. It's caring.
-from a letter written by a Up With People student