Laura Rodriguez

2011-12 Outbound to Italy

Hometown: Weston, Florida

School: Western High School

Sponsor: Weston Rotary Club, District 6990, Florida

Host: Rotary Club of Cremona, District 2050, Italy  

Bio

Laura's Bio

Ciao!!! My name is Laura Rodriguez and I am 15 years old. I was born in San Andres, Colombia and I am been living in Weston, Florida for two years. I’m a junior at Western High School but I am taking some online classes this year so that I would be able to graduate early. YAY!!

To be honest I never expected to be told that I am going to Italy. It was a very shocking surprise, but when I pause for a moment and think about what a great experience it is going to be and how lucky I am by being sent to such a beautiful country where I know that I am going to be welcome and feel very comfortable, my heart starts beating real fast. I also very happy for the opportunity that I’ll get of learning Italian; I am pretty confident that I going to learn it very quickly because the fact that my first language is Spanish which is very similar to Italian.

I live along with my dad and my two beautiful cats (Gata and Russa). I like expending my free time doing outside activities such as playing volleyball, skating, walking in a park and horseback riding. But the one that I love the most is the horseback riding!!! I really like animals, especially horses. I know almost anything you need to know about horses. WOW!

Finally but not less important I would really like to thank Rotary for giving me this huge opportunity, which I know is  going to change my life and the way how I see the world. I also want to thank my dad who has been helping me and giving me confidence all this time. But now I am ready to go on my own. Sorry dad! 

Ci vediamo la prossima volta

October 16

I won't say that this is the hardest nor the easiest thing I have ever done. This may not be the first time that I go far away from my family, but it is the first time that I go away from a person I am in love with.

Even when you are at your home with your family and people you love, it is normal to feel lonely sometimes, and it is even more normal to feel lonely when you are away from this people, in a place when you do not know anyone and do not know how to get close to new people. Italy has show me that the moments where you are lost and scared are the moments when you survive and move on just by being yourself, and that new friends and new people will always get in your life to give you the support that the people back home gave to you in the past, but they would never be able replace them. All the new people and the environment, together with all the new things that are around you for you to know and discover do not have the purpose of help you forget about the people in your past, but to help you become a better person, so that in the moment when you get back home you can show to all the people that was waiting for you for so long, that you opened your eyes to the world, changed and matured into a better person, so that they can feel that all the pain and anxiety of waiting for you was not in vain.