Her answer was "no".
Well, that is...until I said I wanted to become an exchange student! I asked if I could go travelling AND become an exchange student. She said she'd think about it.
("Thinking about it" really meant yes....except that caveat attached went something like this, "You just have to wait a while...I don't want to appear too lenient. Ask me again in a day or two...and we'll talk about it".)
And we did.
I had visions of seeing the world and all that it had to offer!
Before I knew it, just a few days after graduating from highschool, I was on a plane to Australia to "see the world"...or so I thought!
I was about to embark on a life-changing experience! That much, I knew. What I didn't know was just how much my life would change in ways that I had never ever imagined!
As an exchange student, I was selected by a family with whom I would live for 6 months. I knew a little about them and they knew maybe just a little more about me. I knew they had 5 boys in their family. They knew I had 9 siblings. I knew they lived in a small city in Queensland, Australia. They knew I came from SK, Canada. I knew I'd have my own room. They knew that before long, all the little boys would be in it! I didn't know it then, but I think the mother of the family chose me b/c I came from such a large family and b/c I was a girl. She wanted another female in the house for her sons to be around.
When I arrived in Australia, my vision of travelling the world sort of vanished. I met this amazing family with 5 kids and 2 parents, all even more excited than I was to be there! (And boy, was I excited!) I went to a school, not that I had thought much about that part of the trip, but I guess that was the exchange "student" part. It wasn't "exchange travel" or "exchange holiday"...it was "exchange student"! Perhaps I should have thought a little further into this!
Then, to make matters even more hars, I attended an ALL GIRLS SCHOOL RUN BY NUNS! This was NOT the sort of vision I had of making my way around the world! Not by a long shot! An all-girl's school run by nuns! You've got to be kidding!
But life has a way of working itself out...and my great expectations of seeing so many other places didn't seem so important when I was surrounded by 5 fabulous boys ranging in age from 15 down to 3, along with a mother that needed me and new father that adored me. In my 6 months there, I think I went away on weekend-trips 3 or 4 times, tops. And that was enough, for the most part. (I did enjoy gallivanting around on those weekend trips with my soon to be best friend, Julie...but I was glad to get home to my little brothers, too.) I remember one time I went away for 3 days to the coast. When I got home, my mother said "You can't leave again. Peter didn't eat the entire time you were gone." He didn't.
The 3 youngest boys spent a lot of time with me, mostly hanging on my pant leg, cuddling and watching TV and/or up in my room, sitting on my bed playing with whatever they could find. The two older boys and I spent time running through the field, climbing under the fence and watching movies at the drive-in theatre adjacent to their property...or playing tricks on each other! We played a lot of tricks on eachother! Especially Paul and I. We had a blast together!
Although I couldn't articulate it then, what I learned was to have lots of hope and not much expectation.... about a lot of things. I learned to let go of my preconceived ideas of what I thought I wanted the vision to be and just be filled with hope and without expectation.
I might have learned this then...but the lesson about "expectation" has been forgotten and relearned many times since my time as an exchange student in 1988.
When I was there, I met some amazing girl-friends, one of whom I will remember forever. Her name was Julie. She and I became inseparable. Best friends. She told me that she prayed for a best friend in her senior year and I was the answer to her prayers. She was also the answer to mine. Bold and confident were Julie's middle names. Mine were "people-pleaser" and "accommodating". She taught me to stand up for what I wanted and to live life a little more for myself. I am not sure what I taught her, but the last few days I spent in Australia, the tears of friendship that we cried told me that we had both learned a lot.
At our graduation, they played the song "Friends" by Michael W. Smith. To this day, I will remember that song and the feeling I had while standing in a big circle with my graduating class...a class that welcomed me with open arms and embraced me instantly, never (it felt) wanting to let me go.
And then there was those 5 little brothers of mine. I loved them so much. Still do. When I went back to Australia in 2003 to do an ironman race there, I saw a few of my bro's and my Australian mother. How small the world really is! Things go full circle...and now David, the youngest who was 3 at the time, is all grown up and soon to be managing my hostel in just a couple weeks! How lucky am I!
I still have this insatiable desire to go gallivanting around the world. Now, with much less expectation of what and how my trips will shape up to be...but with a lot more hope than ever before.
Hope that I discover and see the world and all that it has to offer.
Hope that the people who cross my path are there for a reason (or a season or a lifetime) and that I'm there (for them) for the same.
Hope that no matter what happens, it's always for the best.
Hope that, somewhere out there (wherever "there" is), I'll make the world and people's lives a bit brighter b/c I was traveling there.
And hope that, no matter where gallivanting leads...I'm always living from a place in my heart.
Going to Australia years ago was truly where my heart was intended to go....I'm so glad my mom said "I'll think about it." when she probalby had more than enough on her mind already!
Mom,
As I see you off gallivanting these days, without expectation but lots of hope, you inspire me to get out and do the same!
love you,
Crystal
In this photo, Julie and I are on the left. We were truly inseparable for those 6 months! The other girls were in our little "group" and were lovely, but Julie and I were two peas in a pod.
Thank God I went to an all-girl's school run by nuns. Looking like this, there was no way I was ever going to get a date! :)
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