Ready to take on the world: Meet Marina Tusz

Every week, I will be profiling an extraordinary human being who lives in our community. If you know someone who is doing something interesting with their life, I want to hear about it. Send me an email at [email protected].

It was the opportunity of a lifetime. One that was too good to resist.

Marina Tusz had heard the stories. Two of her older siblings had done it and they inspired her with their tales of travelling abroad. Even her youngest brother had gone ahead and did his own travelling thing. And she wouldn’t have even considered doing something similar if it wasn’t for them.

It’s been five months since Marina returned to her hometown of Huntsville after taking part in the Rotary Youth Exchange program. But the memories of her 10-month stay in Spain will forever be etched in her mind. It transformed the 18-year-old in a magical way. After all, Marina will tell you, sometimes leaving your comfort zone is totally necessary and undoubtedly the best thing you can do for yourself.

“You go through so much when you’re away,” says Marina. “You learn a lot about yourself.”

She’s soft-spoken, bright-eyed and has this sort of youthful glow only found in someone in their teens who’s comfortable in their own skin with a good head on their shoulders. She enjoys “service above self,” which is why she decided to become a member of Huntsville High School’s Interact Club (the youth sector of the Rotary Club of Huntsville) and also volunteers at the breakfast club. She dances and loves Nordic skiing and cross-country running. She just joined the swim team and figure skating club. She’s into music; the cello has been her baby since she was six years old and she’s been playing the clarinet since she was in grade nine. She lives a full life for a young teenage girl. Her parents have been longtime teachers at Huntsville High School. (Her mom taught me English and everyone wanted her dad as their music teacher.)

Marina is still smiling about her trip to Spain. And it was all made possible thanks to the Rotary’s youth exchange program.

You can hear the excitement in her voice when she talks about the adventure she took thanks to the Rotary’s exchange program. She was just 17 when she departed. It’s a pretty precious age and a pretty big deal. Leaving your family, the comfort of your own home and knowing that you’re a world away from everything that you know and are familiar with can be fairly scary for first timers.

I didn’t know much about the exchange program. People would ask me if I’d like to go and I didn’t think it was for me. I’m a homebody. My sister who’s two years older had went to Thailand and I remember Skyping her and seeing how much she had learned and grown… You can have a gazillion experiences and so finally I thought, ‘My gosh I have to do this.’ And I knew, for sure, that I had to be open-minded.

Being open comes with the exchange program territory. Marina had the mindset that she didn’t much care where she was going to end up because then she couldn’t be let down.

She ended up in Barcelona, Spain. Typically, exchange students stay with three host families over the course of their stay, but Marina stayed with one. And for the most part, she blended right in, and out of those 10 months she only experienced “one little rough time”.

“Obviously, there was a language barrier but there was a cultural barrier as well,” recalls Marina. But she still manages, in her own sweet way, to sound optimistic about the rough patch. “The way people talk about things, it’s all very different. You don’t know these people. You’re expected to act a certain way or do things a certain way, so there’s that initial difference. But it was definitely worth it. I gained an amazing year because I did so much.”

Aside from going to school every day, she took in fantastic sights, experienced decadent food and constantly mingled with other exchange students. One of the highlights of the trip was going to the island of Tenerife, which is closer to Africa than it is to the Spanish peninsula. She traveled as much as she could. And with all that she was doing, she was still managing to be a good ambassador of her country. Being a Rotary exchange student comes with a bit of responsibility.

I wouldn’t say it’s for anyone. It’s not like you’re signing up for a vacation. You have to adjust to another family’s routine, a different lifestyle and culture. And sometimes it’s easy and sometimes it’s very difficult. I’m a sensitive person, so the challenge for me was not to take things personally. If you think you can’t be away home, then no, probably it’s not for you. I think a lot of people could benefit from it. You’re representing your country when you’re there. You’re an ambassador of Canada. And I wanted to give a good representation of my country and that meant being friendly, mindful and not disrespecting other families even when you notice there’s big differences.

When she came home, returning to Canadian soil, she took a deep breath. It was a time to reflect. She had learned so much. Not just about Spanish culture, but about herself as well. Since she’s been back, there’s been several occasions where she experiences “random reflections” of just how much she truly benefited from her trip.

She wears her Rotary blazer with pride. Adorned with pins, each tell a story of a person she connected with or a place she’s been.

Marina is aware of the perks of growing up in a small town like Huntsville. She had a lot of support from the get-go; support from friends and families and even from the surrounding communities.

“You come across people who know your family, and because my parents are so involved in the community as teachers, I know quite a few people. Everyone wished me luck and wished me well… And when I came back everyone wanted to know how it was. Growing up in a small town is more intimate than, say, growing up in a big city. When I was in Spain I lived in a city, a big city and I almost forgot what it was like to live in a small town. I had a new appreciation for it. For the most part, it was a pretty positive experience.”

And now she’s got the bite. To travel. The desire to see more of the world. There’s so many places to see and sights to take in, new grounds to be explored. They say it’s a small world, but it’s also pretty big, too.

The Rotary Club of Huntsville is looking for youth exchange candidates to send abroad for a year. Any students who are interested please visit http://www.rotary7010youthexchange.com/.

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