Being the new student is never easy, but foreign exchange student Maria Gomez Marin has powered through it and found comfort in the new friends she’s made. “In my other school I had  friendships, but I don’t think I had an actual friend. Here I feel like I have real friends.”

After Maria initially expressed interest in travelling to  America, she and her friend started looking into the country: looking up information, videos, and other things to see if they wanted to commit to the visit. “We used to watch videos on YouTube and TikTok about exchange students that were telling their experience. We felt that it was a good idea to try it, but we didn’t take it that serious until we started talking and talking,” said Marin.

Many days in, they decided to go through with the process of applying to a foreign exchange program, and Maria ended up at Buffalo Island Central in Arkansas. She came here to learn more English, experience America, and learn to socialize better. Being the new kid at a school outcasts you instantly, but she didn’t let this get her down and forced herself to come out of her shell. Quickly as the wind, she let her bright personality shine through. Years back, she had been going through a rough patch of her life-not even knowing how much she was hurting others around her-until her mother sat her down and asked her what was wrong. From then on she made it her mission to be a ray of sunlight that lifted others rather than put them down.

While she doesn’t regret coming to America, it isn’t always easy. “I would say having to socialize speaking in English, even though I know how to speak English it’s just still hard for me.”

She misses her friends and family during the holidays, but Maria always reminds herself that it was her choice to come  to America and she didn’t regret it at all. Even though she aspires to go into the military just as her father and grandfather had done before, Maria would like to come back to America for college as she’s grown so much by being here.