Letter from America

"Mitchell,
By the time you read this, you'll be leaving England. At the time of writing, you've been here almost two weeks.
It's been a good two weeks. Hopefully the experiences you've had complete overshadow everything that's happened so far though.
So I'll write what I hope happens:

• Make friends in every class
• Have a good exchange weekend
• Spend Christmas with new people
• Spend New Year's somewhere awesome

As you know, I'm not much for setting goals. But remember the reasons you came on this trip in the first place:

• Always wanted to study abroad
• Make new friends
• Leave home
• Forcefully eject self from 'shell'

I think so far that I am satisfied with the trip - but I hope you are able to look back at this year and say without doubt that it was best year of your life. [editor's note: so far...]

-Mitchell Rysavy, September 2013"