She loves talking to people, thinking outside the box and she has lots of friends. The one thing that Marta hasn’t had is brothers or sisters. When she moved to America, she moved to a new family.

Marta Bottani has lived in Mantua, Italy her whole life. She grew up there and went to school there for as long as she can remember. In September 2013, she made a life-changing decision.

“I was really determined to go and explore,” Marta said.

Joining the foreign exchange student program had been a dream of Marta’s since she came to America the first two times.

“The first time I came to America was to go to Florida for a family vacation,” Marta said. “The second time I came to Massachusetts during the summer for two weeks.”

When Marta realized she wanted to come stay in America for 10 months, she also realized she had to ask her parents.

“When I asked my parents, they thought that I thought I wanted to but in the end I would get over it,” Marta said. “They thought I wouldn’t go, that I would be to scared.”

Her parents finally agreed to let Marta come to America. Soon it was time to say goodbye and board the plane.

“When it was time to go, I was scared. I was thinking ‘I don’t know if I can do it. I don’t know if I can really go. Maybe I’m not brave enough. Maybe I’m not old enough’,” Marta said. “ I was scared to leave and be alone.”

Even though she was scared, she went ahead and boarded the plane. What she came to reassured her that this is where she needed to be.