By Prottay Roy Chowdhury (YES 2021-2022, Bangladesh, placed by ASSE in Manchester, IA)

High school was my absolute favorite part of my exchange year! Being an introvert, I had a hard time socializing in school at the beginning of the school year. Somehow though, around the second semester, something just clicked and I turned into one of the most sociable people at West Delaware High School, mainly due to my sense of humor. From freshmen to seniors, athletes to musicians, I made friends with all kinds of students and enjoyed every moment at school. 

I actually came to be known as ‘Roy’ to everyone since many people couldn’t pronounce my first name. I’ll never forget how I would get high fives from everyone in the hallway with people cheering “yeah, Roy!”, even for little things I did. I also made great connections with my teachers. I’d even hang back after school to talk with them and we’d have great conversations for hours on different topics.

I also connected with some staff members such as the principal, custodians, and the lunch servers. One of the lunch servers personally brought a long john doughnut to me on my last day of school. It wasn’t normally on the breakfast menu, but she knew it was my favorite American breakfast. All in all, my American school experience is clearly one of the biggest highlights of my exchange year as well as my life so far.