Going into my sophomore year of college my parents sat me down at dinner to present an idea to me. I nearly choked up my asparagus when they told me, "Okay Colleen we've decided to host two international students from China and we're going to put them in your room at home". After nearly dying I started cracking up and didn't think they were at all serious. I thought it was some empty nest joke because my parents were getting lonely being in our house with just our psycho dog Mango.

I come from a crazy, weird family but never thought this would be something my parents would ever consider. This also meant that when I came home from school on breaks that I would no longer have my room that I spent almost 19 years in. However, I agreed to it and it was one of the best decisions my family has ever made.

For those that don't know, taking in exchange students is a commitment. You have to provide them with meals, transportation, proper housing and everything else you would essentially do for a child of your own. You're granted with an allowance from the school you're housing the students from, and the school inspects your house to make sure it would be a good environment for the students. So my parents did everything required and soon enough there were two new girls in our home named Yoyo and Linda.

It was definitely weird at first meeting Linda and Yoyo. I came home on break to find two complete strangers from a foreign country living in my childhood room that was completely rearranged. I thought it would bother me more but for some reason it didn't. We ate dinner every night at the table and talked for at least an hour every time. Sometimes we would even be there for over two hours and we would have no idea because we were lost in conversation. I then realized that these girls weren't just students in my home, but over the past months while I was off at school they became family.

Yoyo and Linda aren't students anymore to me. They are my sisters. We come from completely different backgrounds but we bond over things that any other people would bond over. We listen to the same music, like the same fast food and gossip over all of the same things my friends and I do. You think there are so many boundaries between yourself and foreigners because of your different backgrounds, but when you get to know people you realize that's not at all true.

When Linda and Yoyo came to school in the United States they had been completely immersed in our culture and I had no idea I would get the pleasure to be so immersed in theirs. We have Chinese decorations all over my house and even have nights where we cook authentic Chinese meals and learn about their culture. We celebrate their holidays and get to be 100% a part of their lives. When they graduate they plan on attending universities in the United States, and while I'll be sad that they won't be in my home anymore, I get to visit them and they get to show me more of my culture I might not have even experienced before. It just goes to show that no matter where in the world someone might be from that we are all humans and we are all the same.

We share the same struggles and emotions and being a part of this program didn't just give me that cultural experience but it also gave me two new sisters that I never thought I'd get. So if you ever have the chance to meet new people from different backgrounds and countries, you don't have to house them and bring them into your home, but I urge you to just sit down and talk to them. I can promise you'll be surprised by what you learn and the new perspective you'll come out with.