Coming to America

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My dad once told me that everything was bigger in Texas. As a young boy I didn’t really believe him, but somehow it got stuck in my head and I kept wondering if it was true. Now he is 5000 miles away and I can’t even tell him that he was right.

I’m from Denmark, the little Northern European country with 7 million citizens, where the taxes are high and the buildings are small, it’s cold all year long but it’s still the happiest country in the world. I love my home country, but that was just not enough for me, I wanted to explore new places and new cultures. I wanted to come to America.

Man, I was shocked when I first arrived in the Houston Airport. My host family took me and Jonas (my “exchange brother” from Germany) for a drive. I don’t know what it is but there is something with Texas and oversized cars. I saw more trucks in 10 minutes than I’d seen my entire life (that’s probably because there’s like two trucks in all of Denmark because of the gas prices, but I was still pretty overwhelmed).

I felt very small in the big truck, comfortable but small. I felt like a little boy again as we drove past all the different fast food chains near Main Street, all the big houses and all the Texan people.

The last two weeks I’ve tried a lot of different things and met a bunch of new people. It’s very different from everything I am used to. Saying goodbye to my family and my friends knowing that I will not be able to see them for the next year is one of the most difficult things I have ever done in my entire life.

Learning a new language and getting new friends in a new place is never easy and I know that it might take some time, but the people of Tomball have been very kind and welcoming, and I am sure that my year in Tomball High School will be the experience of a lifetime. I know that there are a lot of exchange students this year, and I hope that the students of our school will take some time to make them feel welcome.

I look forward to a great school year in America.