My 16 year old daughter Hattie (soon to be 17) is leaving for Morocco in June to study Arabic and live with a Moroccan host family for seven weeks. All of this is courtesy of NSLI-Y, a government language initiative for youth that provides full scholarships to high school students to study less commonly taught languages abroad. The idea behind these programs is to prepare youth to be leaders in a global world, and promote international dialogue. Hattie is all for this and she can't wait to go to Morocco, immerse herself in the culture, learn Arabic... and hopefully ride a camel while she's there. And did I mention it's a full scholarship? IT'S FREE!
I've discovered, however, that adults are not so excited when they hear about Hattie's impending trip. They tend to respond to the news with expressions of wide-eyed horror ... followed up by a deeply concerned look, and the question, "How are YOU doing with her upcoming plans?"
I'd be lying if I said I wasn't worried about her being so far away, on a distant continent with strangers... for seven weeks. But the program does have lots of supervision, it's government sponsored and they seem to have all the bases covered for insuring the safety and well-being of the kids who participate.
I mostly look at this as a practice run for my looming empty nest when she goes off to college in a year and a half. Since our nest is just the two of us, it's going to feel more like a huge empty chasm when she goes. But hey, I started preparing myself for the empty nest on the day she was born. I think I'm ok with this.
Hattie wants to be a citizen of the world, and who am I to hold her back. I just hope the camel doesn't spit at her.
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