The past eight months have easily been the most challenging but fulfilling of my life. I arrived in Brazil certain I was almost fluent in Portuguese, only to find I couldn’t understand a single sentence that was said to me. My self-confidence plummeted as I realized how severely unprepared I was. Exhausted after several delayed flights and 45 hours of travel, I was certain I had made the biggest mistake of my life; I was in a foreign country, living with people who didn’t speak more than five words of my language, and this would be my life for the next 11 months.
My Brazilian great-grandmother met my great-grandfather, an American Navy intelligence officer, at a Carnaval party in 1943 in Santos, Brazil. My grandmother was born in Rio de Janeiro before the family relocated to the Roaring Fork Valley in the 1950s. My family grew with the town, and Carbondale is the only home I’ve known for the first 17 years of my life.
Though Brazilian cuisine — pão de queijo, mousse de maracujá and feijoada — were staples at family dinners, my connection to Brazil remained largely unexplored, limited to a deep curiosity. Inspired in part by this curiosity, I applied to Rotary’s youth exchange program. I was accepted to go to Brazil, my first choice country, and I eagerly began studying Portuguese.
After great anticipation and preparation with Rotary, I arrived in the city of Rio de Janeiro on July 27. I was both overwhelmed and enamored by the vibrancy of the city. However, in my new hometown of Nova Friburgo, with a new family and pets, new school and new everything, my first few months in Brazil were an uphill battle. I witnessed my academic downfall as I started school in a language I didn’t understand or speak. Relentless homesickness made some days unbearable.
To cope, I created a list of eight milestones, promising myself that if I remained miserable upon reaching the next one, I would let myself go home. For the first few, I was still miserable, but I am more determined (or stubborn) than I am fragile, so I pushed on. After my third or fourth milestone, I realized that the nights of tears were few and far between and had been replaced by a feeling of belonging. I had friends, an amazing language tutor and I had fallen in love with the warmth of the Brazilian people, with the energy and animation that hung in the air and with the unabashed joy that infuses daily life.
The music, the parties (which far surpass those in America), the makeshift family I had built, the beauty and directness of Portuguese and even the humid air that finally restored moisture to my perpetually dry hair and nails — all of it became familiar, comfortable and a part of me. Time started to fly.
For summer vacation around Christmas, I spent a month in Buzios and Arraial do Cabo. I lived in what felt like my very own coming-of-age film; my friends and I escaped the relentless summer heat in the crystalline waves of the Atlantic Ocean and stayed out dancing until sunrise on the beach. I became acutely aware of the fleeting nature of my time in Brazil, my time in Buzios even more so. With enthusiasm, I embraced every sunburnt smile, every spontaneous adventure and every new friend.
For my entire exchange, I had been anticipating Carnaval with excitement. My first weekend of celebration brought me to Vitória, a coastal city in Espírito Santo. Adorned in an elaborate costume, I samba-danced with both Brazilians and other exchange students from all over the world in front of thousands of onlookers. I have always had two left feet, but dancing that night with electrified crowds in an enormous parade, I felt more alive than ever before.
The next weekend, in my host city, Nova Friburgo, felt like a reward for having made it this far in my exchange. I celebrated with what seemed like the entire city, laughing and dancing, but alas, I didn’t follow in my great-grandmother’s footsteps of meeting my future husband.
Now, as my second-to-last milestone of the year, my trip to the Amazon, comes closer, I am filled with immense gratitude and pride. My exchange year has given me space to grow and become a more independent and resilient person. I can speak and understand a language that once felt insurmountable. I connected to my Brazilian roots, and I embraced a second home. Carbondale will always be my home, and the Pevecs and Browns will always be my family, but now I have the privilege of calling Brazil my home away from home.
Although I don’t fully subscribe to the idea of destiny, I cannot shake the feeling that I was always supposed to come here.
Anna Sophia Brown, Carbondale native and Roaring Fork High School (RFHS) student, is spending her junior year abroad as a Rotary Youth Exchange Ambassador to Brazil. Inspired by the Colorado River and outdoor adventures, she is passionate about the environment and plans to study environmental science, policy or law in college after graduating from RFHS in 2026. Go Rams!