Hannah Frew

Reflection of my Personal Achievement

The personal achievement I chose to brainstorm was when I endured the Explore Program in the
summer of 2022. The program’s goal is to give students the opportunity to learn about French-
Canadian culture. The government supports the Explore program by giving a bursary to all
accepted recipients. Which is why it interested me, because I was 16 and aching to travel, but I
didn't have the money to support myself in any other way. To get into the program, you go
through an application process where you pick a city in Canada you would like to travel to. My
choice was Moncton, New Brunswick because I had never gone to the eastern provinces, and I
was curious about how it compared to the West coast. It was also the farthest place I could find. I
knew that without the Explore program I wouldn’t have any reason to travel there so I saw it as a
great opportunity. When I first told my parents about it, they were very supportive as I was quite
mature for only being 16. This experience was very important to me as it was the first time I
would be fully independent. For six weeks I lived by myself on the 11th floor in a dorm room on
the other side of the country. We had to go to school Monday through Friday, but on the
weekends, we were free to go wherever we wanted. Since I didn’t have a car, one of the skills I
learned was how to take transit in a new city. I had to find where to get a compass card, and how
to utilize the bus routes. I also learned budgeting skills as we grocery shopped weekly, and I had
to cook for myself. It would’ve been easy to constantly eat junk food, but I learned that eating
healthy was better and made me feel good. Our classes started at 8 am, so I had to discipline
myself to get up every morning, make my lunch and get to class on time even when I wanted so
badly to stay in bed. I stayed on top of housekeeping such as; laundry, sweeping, and cleaning.
All things that teenagers and or young adults can do, but for the first time all the responsibility
fell on my shoulders, and it felt different. This experience showed me what it would be like to
move out on my own and have more responsibilities. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve become a huge
contributor to taking care of my home, so my mom has less to do, and I appreciate having clean
spaces. Now that I’m going to university, I’m reflecting on the Explore experience and I am
grateful I did it. Making new friends and staying disciplined are skills I know will come in handy
this coming September. The language barrier was a very hard adjustment, and I would consider it
to be a setback as I struggled to communicate in the beginning. I was so overwhelmed I even
asked to switch into a lower-level class. My teacher encouraged me to challenge myself and stay
in her class and I ended up doing so. Since the program is immersion, my french comprehension
improved astronomically, which made communicating easier as the weeks passed. I was grateful
I stayed at my original level because I was learning so much. After 6 weeks I went to the airport
and flew home feeling more confident and prouder of myself than ever before. I missed my
friends and family of course, but I was so grateful for the skills I had learned. This experience
taught me so much about myself and looking back it made me more independent than kids my
age.