Rotary exchange participants coming back, going home, and starting out

Rotary Exchange participants Lane Crawford, Caroline Laurent, and Arianna Korbett
T.  Lucas photo

Toni Lucas

Pincher Creek Rotary Club, as part of Rotary International, is part of an international exchange program that offers opportunities to young people all over the world, affording them the chance to travel to exotic areas and to be a part of a culture foreign to them at the outset. In the process they become ambassadors for their regions, spreading understanding about their homelands.

 Arianna Korbett will soon be departing Pincher Creek to discover the wonders of Croatia, Lane Crawford just got back to Pincher Creek from a year in Germany, and Caroline Laurent is returning to Belgium after almost a year here. The three were honoured with a hello-goodbye celebration earlier this week at the home of newly minted Pincher Creek Rotary President Scott Korbett.  Arianna is his daughter.

"I've been home for four hours, or so," said Lane Crawford. He felt that it truly was a growth experience for him. "Absolutely, it was like a dream. I learned a lot, I learned German, a lot about myself, how to manage things on my own.  Yeah, it was nice."

While Crawford expressed that he was happy to be home, Caroline Laurent was experiencing mixed emotions saying goodbye to her friends she had made over the last year. She was returning to Belgium the next day. "I don't want to go, I would like to stay here a lot more. I will miss Canada. It's a mixed up emotion 'cause I'm happy to see my family and friends back of course but I'm also very sad to leave Canada and the people I got to learn to know here for one year so... it's not easy."  She's promised to come back some day.

Arianna Korbett had the chance to see what it was like to leave and to return, while anticipating her own experience.  She said that she will be going to the capital of Croatia, Zagreb. "I don't really feel anything yet, I'm more nervous than excited. Just 'cause it's not high school, going to my school every day anymore, it's in a different country, with different people, a different language." Taking this seriously, she is studying to make the transition easier. "Yeah, I've been doing some audiobooks."