Welcome to my personal space. You can call me Cris. I am a teenager that two years ago decided to study abroad. No, not one of those summer schools. No, not one semester. I’m talking about a whole year overseas. So now picture me, a sixteen-year-old guy, standing in front of an airport gate, with a piece of luggage, a laptop, and a huge desire of conquering the world. As I said goodbye to my parents and walked away, that warm summer day of 2014, I officially became a high school exchange student and a rotary ambassador for Italy in the USA. 

In a blink of an eye, it’s July 2015. I am standing in front of an airport gate again, but this time I am wearing my pinned Rotary Blazer at DIA, Denver International Airport. You see, every single pin on my blazer meant something. Every little thing hanging on my jacket came from different parts of the world. Remember that one year ago I wanted to conquer the world? I felt like I succeeded. The hardest thing to do at that point was facing the fact that... time was up. No more travelling across the States, no more “Hey dude, what’s up?” in the hallway of my American high school, and no more Rocky Mountains out of my window. 

I can't deny it, I am heartbroken, emotionally unstable. Submerged by all kinds of books I have to study before the beginning of the new school year. I don't know what to expect from my senior year. I don't know how it will be to see my classmates and my teachers again. I hope that I will be able to enjoy my final year and that, in a way, it will pass by quickly.

My vacation, as people call it, was amazing, definitely one for the books. I have had ups and downs, but I decided to bring back home only the positive things, those we want to remember forever. As I am not ready to accept the fact that I am not a high school exchange anymore, I opened this platform. I felt like our community needed something more. A portal where advice, stories, problems, and solutions could be shared. 

This is how "Cris Goes Abroad" was born.

- Cris