{"id":23275,"date":"2016-11-17T05:17:02","date_gmt":"2016-11-17T10:17:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/huntsville.dopperonline.ca\/?p=23275"},"modified":"2018-10-01T13:15:09","modified_gmt":"2018-10-01T17:15:09","slug":"ready-take-world-meet-marina-tusz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/ready-take-world-meet-marina-tusz\/","title":{"rendered":"Ready to take on the world: Meet Marina Tusz"},"content":{"rendered":"

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 <\/strong><\/em>laura.maclean@doppleronline.ca<\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

It was the opportunity of a lifetime. One that was too good to resist.<\/p>\n

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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\u2019t have even considered doing something similar if it wasn\u2019t for them.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou go through so much when you\u2019re away,\u201d says Marina. \u201cYou learn a lot about yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n

She\u2019s soft-spoken, bright-eyed and has this sort of youthful glow only found in someone in their teens who\u2019s comfortable in their own skin with a good head on their shoulders. She enjoys \u201cservice above self,\u201d which is why she decided to become a member of Huntsville High School\u2019s 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\u2019s into music; the cello has been her baby since she was six years old and she\u2019s 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.)<\/p>\n

\"Marina

Marina is still smiling about her trip to Spain. And it was all made possible thanks to the Rotary’s youth exchange program.<\/p><\/div>\n

You can hear the excitement in her voice when she talks about the adventure she took thanks to the Rotary\u2019s exchange program. She was just 17 when she departed. It\u2019s a pretty precious age and a pretty big deal. Leaving your family, the comfort of your own home and knowing that you\u2019re a world away from everything that you know and are familiar with can be fairly scary for first timers.<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t know much about the exchange program. People would ask me if I\u2019d like to go and I didn\u2019t think it was for me. I\u2019m a homebody. My sister who\u2019s two years older had went to Thailand and I remember Skyping her and seeing how much she had learned and grown\u2026 You can have a gazillion experiences and so finally I thought, \u2018My gosh I have to do this.\u2019 And I knew, for sure, that I had to be open-minded.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Being open comes with the exchange program territory. Marina had the mindset that she didn\u2019t much care where she was going to end up because then she couldn\u2019t be let down.<\/p>\n

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 \u201cone little rough time\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, there was a language barrier but there was a cultural barrier as well,\u201d recalls Marina. But she still manages, in her own sweet way, to sound optimistic about the rough patch. \u201cThe way people talk about things, it\u2019s all very different. You don\u2019t know these people. You\u2019re expected to act a certain way or do things a certain way, so there\u2019s that initial difference. But it was definitely worth it. I gained an amazing year because I did so much.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

I wouldn\u2019t say it\u2019s for anyone. It\u2019s not like you\u2019re signing up for a vacation. You have to adjust to another family\u2019s routine, a different lifestyle and culture. And sometimes it\u2019s easy and sometimes it\u2019s very difficult. I\u2019m a sensitive person, so the challenge for me was not to take things personally. If you think you can\u2019t be away home, then no, probably it\u2019s not for you. I think a lot of people could benefit from it. You\u2019re representing your country when you\u2019re there. You\u2019re 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\u2019s big differences.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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\u2019s been back, there\u2019s been several occasions where she experiences \u201crandom reflections\u201d of just how much she truly benefited from her trip.<\/p>\n

\"She

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.<\/p><\/div>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou 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\u2026 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

And now she\u2019s got the bite. To travel. The desire to see more of the world. There\u2019s so many places to see and sights to take in, new grounds to be explored. They say it\u2019s a small world, but it\u2019s also pretty big, too.<\/p>\n\n\t\t