I feel extremely grateful because I am writing this blog-post at my American home. It has been three years since the end of my exchange and being back is honestly still quite weird and unbelievable. At the beginning of my new experience here, I was complaining about the fact that it doesn't feel like exchange at all. The reason behind this is that it is not an exchange, and nothing will ever be like it. However, this past weekend I had the opportunity to attend the District Conference in Estes Park, Colorado where I hung out with inbounds and Rotex. That was all I wanted to do: being in Colorado and around people from all over the world, once again. It totally felt like nothing changed since 2015.

Despite that, this conference opened up wounds that were never closed in the first place. As I was performing "Love in Any Language", my mind was traveling back to the 2015 Conference in Fort Collins, when I was on stage with my group of friends. The song makes me quite emotional and so you might think that this is why my mind was playing with my feelings, but actually, even doing something as simple as going to the pool or the hot tub with the current exchange students would bring me back to the good old days... I wouldn't change anything about my exchange but if I could go back in time I'd definitely do two things: treat people differently and say "thank you" more often.

Exchange is a fixed period of time during which every single one of us starts from scratch. The only problem is that this awesome experience has an end, just like everything in life, and this is definitely what ruined me. It is difficult for me to acknowledge closure and accept when something is officially over. I might be having the best time and enjoying myself but as soon as that comes to completion, I blast into tears. I get so sad to the point that I wonder whether it was worth it or not. And of course it was. Not just good enough, but beyond excellent.

People might not imagine this because I'm a big guy, but I'm quite sensitive. I detest goodbyes, but that never stopped me from traveling. I'm so grateful to have people in my life that make saying goodbye so hard, and I love Rotary International with whole my heart because I met those people as a result of being part of the Youth Exchange Program. My exchange year might be over, but because of Rotary, I continue to meet incredible people

- Cris