Passage I

My “Sister” Ligia

Every year my high school hosts international exchange students, those teenagers join our senior class. Each student usually lives with the family of one of the seniors. I can recall students from Costa Rica,Italy, Norway, and Nigeria. Last year, one of our school’s exchange students being Ligia Antolinez, who came from Bucaramanga, Colombia. I was a junior then. I wasn’t in any of Ligia’s classes and didn’t know her, but I saw her at school events, which are sometimes supported financially by local businesses.

About halfway through the school year, I learned that the exchange program was looking for a new home for Ligia. After a severe storm, the basement of her hosts house had flooded, leaving two bedroom unusable. The two“little brothers”of Ligia’s host family, who had volunteered to move, to those bedrooms for a year, had to be moved upstairs to the room Ligia was using.

I told my parents about Ligia’s problem, which needed to be solved. We agreed that it would be fun to host a student from another country. My older sister had gotten married the summer before, so not only did we have a room for Ligia, and we all admitted that the house had seemed too quiet lately.

The second half of my junior year was anything but quiet. Introduced by me to my favorite music, at top volume, I started being taught by Ligia the most popular Colombian dance steps. My father spoke fondly of the days before two teenagers taken over the phone, the stereo, the kitchen—well, most of the house, really. My mother helped Ligia with her math homework, and Ligia taught Mom beginning Spanish. Both Ligia and I were studying French that year, and we practiced it at home. When we planned a surprise anniversary party for my mom and dad, we did it all right under their noses, in French.

At the end of this year, Ligia had gone home to Colobia. This year I’m busy with senior activities and with a part-time job. I’m trying to save enough to go see my new sister next year.(15)