What I am going to miss about America

German exchange student Tom Barysch shares his final notes as a member of Enochs High School

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Tom Barysch, General Editor

I’ve lived here in California for 9 months now, and I will be heading back to Germany again soon. I am going to miss a ton of things from here.

The biggest thing I will miss is the high school spirit and the high school sports that are a huge thing here in the states. In Germany we don’t have any school spirit, we don’t have a school mascot, any school teams, friday night lights, or basketball games where everyone meets up to cheer on the school. It’s a thing that I didn’t even know existed until I came here, and I learned how much fun it is.

In Germany you spend your time in a different way, not necessarily in a worse way, just different. The German youth doesn’t know what it’s like to play for your school in a football game, score a touchdown and get celebrated in and out after, or what it’s like to see your friends from other schools at track meets. It’s a bummer, we don’t have this in Europe. I think that American teenagers should know how lucky they are that they’ve grown up with these traditions in place, that make high school, and school in general an actually fun place to be. I mean other than school sports, you guys have rallys, spirit weeks, homecoming, winter formal and Prom. All things we don’t have in Europe.

I will also miss the food here. Let’s be real, it’s not healthy, but Americans know how to make a good burger with fries, tri tip steak, ribs, or ice cream.

When I’m back in Germany, I will always look back to my exchange year with good memories and having experienced a lot of things that just don’t exist in other places in the world.