Today is "Giving Tuesday", which I always found to be an odd thing. Let's have the day on which money is donated fall after the two supposedly biggest shopping days of the year. Anyway.
Hosting an exchange student is, in some ways, like volunteering, at least for me. I thought I was going to be giving Luca all these things like showing him all about baseball, American football, hockey, teaching him how to cook, etc. We really have received a lot. We have a second family in Italy now that we can visit whenever we want, and they can come here whenever they want. My parents have an Italian grandson now. It has been this experience of mutual beneficence, which is what hosting an exchange student is supposed to do.
We don't have kids, so we have also learned more about being parents and managing conflict. I know I have learned more about how to deal with a school from the non-student side, which is something that is definitely not taught anywhere! So what we have given to Luca - experiences, knowledge, a home - he has given back to us exponentially more than we could ever give to him.
This is why we host - creating invisible ties, familial bonds, and relationships that cross all boundaries.
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