Dear American family, I am really curious to meet you. When the time comes for my departure I will be at the seaside with my family, in a place that is beautiful to me, where I have been spending the month of August since I was a child. I was born in a big city in northern Italy, where everyone is always running and busy, but now I live a thousand kilometers south, in a small town by the sea, it is quiet (sometimes too much!) but has a mild climate, everything is slower and people smile more. Also, I can walk almost everywhere, at school and at the sport club, and I like this very much. The sea is my natural element: I practice a beautiful sport, Olympic canoeing, which leave me be in the water even in the warm southern Italian winter (temperatures never go below zero)… so I can breathe in the smell of the saltiness and feel the waves rocking me. Sometimes I have thought that sports could become my job (in fact, it is something I put a lot of effort into). I have a lot of friends and I really enjoy being with them. I also enjoy sometimes being with my parents' friends and talking to adults, who often have a lot to teach me. But everything I am used to and love I am ready to question and let go in order to fulfill my dreams and satisfy my curiosity. There are many reasons why I chose to spend a year in the US. The first is that I want to exit my comfort zone, to have confirmation that there are ways of living and working and studying different from mine. The second is that I want to learn English very well, to be able to access the best Universities in my country, which now also organize degree programs entirely in English, and clearly practicing the living language is essential to gain access. In Italian school we study a lot of English, grammar and literature, but we do very little practice of spoken language: this year will help me a lot to become fluent. The third reason is that I would like to discover the USA and breathe the American dream that many of my ancestors - in conditions certainly more difficult and disadvantaged than mine have sought in decades and centuries past. Last but not least, I fervently hope to find a family who will make me feel at home, with whom I can have a real exchange, from whom I can take and learn as much as possible, and to whom I can also pass on some of my culture and world. And maybe even an American sibling (or more than one!) to keep in touch with for life. I have two sisters, and so I am used to having peers around; it would seem strange to me otherwise! I love my family, very much, I know that they are giving me a great gift and I don't know if I really deserve it, but I want to live up to the expectations that mom and dad place on me: I want to return to them with a baggage filled with experiences, feelings, new skills and hope. The two years of the pandemic were very hard for me: the schools, where I live, were often closed, I could not play sports... it was terrible to be alone and not be able to go out and not be able to live my life as a teenager. Fortunately, that period is over! And now being with others is even better! I am ready: can't wait to meet you! How about you? Thank you, L.