Rotary is so epic, though....

Yes. It is. For all the drama, rotary is epic. I love rotary. So much.

I'm talking to a friend from my district as I write this. We're just going on and on and on about how amazing and epic and wonderful and irritating Rotary Exchange is.

"

7:33pm

Yeah....rotary is....

like a virus.

It eats away at you until there's nothing left.

Define?

I agree

It seems like it is my life now, I can't avoid it

can't think about anything else.

can't do anything that will have any bearing on anything else.

Rotary is life.

I both love it and hate it at the same time

"

I already have described the Rotaryvirus. But...that's really what it is. It's a wonderful virus, one that every RYES (Rotary Youth Exchange Student) loves, and really doesn't want to get rid of, but..it's a virus nonetheless.  I can't think about school during school anymore. I can't see anything the same way. 

Proof? This morning, I came out of my room wearing a skirt and a blouse (dressed up for a Rotary luncheon. I love you Westfield-Mayvillers!!), with my backpack on, my laptop bag on, and a bag with jeans and my boots so I could shoot at trap tonight. As I was walking out, I thought to myself, "Hmmm...I feel like a RYES. This time next year, I'll be dressed up for a Rotary meeting after school, thus the backpack and laptop, going to hang out with friends after the meeting, thus the jeans, and...whoah. I just feel like a RYES." I've been having thoughts like that a lot lately. It seems like everything is putting me in a mindset for next year. 

This virus gets to ALL of us. Outbounds, I know you've got it. Inbounds, you obviously have it, I mean...you're on exchange. Rotex, I'm so sorry that you can't be in my position right now, because I know you miss it. For everything that scares me half to death, for everything that irritates me about where I am in my exchange right now, it's the best feeling in the world. The feeling of the knowledge that in less than 80 days, I'll be in a foreign country, learning a different language, being part of a rich and awesome culture....just blows my mind. Even when I let myself think about the things that could go wrong, the things that could make the experience even the slightest bit less than amazing, I can't not be excited, because after about thirty seconds of thinking about the bad things, the good things come flooding in. 

When I think about how I spent two months researching Distrikt 1860 and then found out that I'm going to Distrikt 1940 and how...sad I felt, I think about the fact that I had Ben Mau's amazing blog ( go read it.) to tell me all about my new distrikt. Now I know that I'll be going to Paris (!!!!) and that there's an orientation in Neureppin. So even if I'm sad that I spent two months on 1860 and then had to switch, I think about the fact that even without the research, I know something about 1940. I think about Berlin (!!!!) and how even if I'm not in Berlin, I'll be able to go to Berlin. I think about the fact that I'm not as close to Geneva and the CERN Large Hadron Collider as 1860, I'm still about twenty hours closer to it in 1940 than I am now. There's plenty about this virus to love. 

I love this RotaryVirus. Thank you so much, Rotary, for giving it to me.