177 Days

How I convinced my parents...
Convincing my parents to let me spend 3 weeks in a foreign country was not an easy thing to do. But, thanks to my persuasion skills (and how lovely my parents are, of course) I did it!
I started by first mentioning it months before. At the beginning of the school year (September), I was looking into being an exchange student for the second half of my sophomore year. I wanted to do it in France, but I wasn't comfortable taking classes in French. So, I began with planting the seed of me going to England for a semester in my parents' heads. I started researching different programs, and so did my mom. When I asked my school counselor about being an exchange student, he gave me information about a summer program! At first I was annoyed because I asked for programs during the year, but, eventually, the summer idea grew on me. So, I started to plant the summer program seed in my parents' minds instead.
After that, I did a ton of research. I spent hours on the computer looking for different organizations that would work for what I was looking for. I had to find a program that had French classes, housing, food, and most expenses included. Also, it had to have organized sight seeing, activities to do in the free time, enough supervision to make my parents happy, enough freedom to make me happy, be in the center of Paris, and couldn't be too expensive. I probably went through 100 different websites and found 9 of them eligible.
From there, I started to make a PowerPoint (nerdy, I know). After a few hours I got all of the information on the slides in a presentable fashion. But then I realized that it wouldn't be nearly enough. Just showing them what they probably would think they could find after a 10 minute Google search would definitely not convince them! So, I came to the conclusion that I would have to think like a parent. Over the course of the next few days, I racked my brain, asked friends and asked teachers what reasons my parents would have against me going. Each time I got the same answer. Worry, cost, worry. So I went back to the PowerPoint! On it, I listed the pros and made them all fancy, and I listed the cons and made them ugly, then I refuted them. That required even more research. I had to look into how safe Paris was compared to other cities and I wrote a small report on each of the programs I found and their supervision. Strangely enough, the number of murders that occur in Paris each year is not an easy statistic to find.
When I was done with that, there was still the little problem of the cost. Unfortunately for me, I didn't have nearly enough money in my bank account to pay for the entire trip, and, if I did, I would be very reluctant to spend it all. So, I had to come up with alternatives to paying for the trip. First, I looked into scholarships for the programs. Most said that they are only available for people who have the financial need for it. So, I had to decide how much I wanted this trip. I want it a lot. I knew I had to make some sacrifices. I told my parents that I will not take allowance and I will not ask for any money for clothes for the rest of my life. Also, I said I will pay for airfare and all costs once I am in Paris.
Thankfully, my hard work on my PowerPoint payed off! When I showed it to my parents, they were very impressed with my dedication and effort. After a few days of thinking and looking at each program, they decided that I can go!