360 Degrees: Exchanges

As many of you know, the next two upcoming weeks I will have a French student, named Ambroise, living with me, going to school with me, coming to sports with me... he's pretty much like my conjoined twin for these next two weeks.
Ambroise arrived on Thursday, and at first I think it was a bit difficult. Between the different accents, the different school, the different food, and the big American way of doing things, I felt that Ambroise was kind of startled and overwhelmed by all of it. However, now, while it's only day 3 of his stay, I could say that this anxiety has completely diminished. From bonfires, to movies, to Costco run, to strange French techno music, we've reached a level of comfort, that we both can gain the most from this experience.
And while although this is only the 3rd day of his stay, I've begun to realize something very important about what an exchange actually is.
Webster dictionary defines exchange as a verb that means to give up (something) for something else; part with for some equivalent; change for another.
At the beginning of this, I thought “okay, I'll probably have to skip hanging out with my friends, and do something with Ambroise" or "Oh, I can't finish homework tonight because Ambroise will be here", so in a sense I did think I would have to give up something for this program. However, now, I don't see this French exchange program as an exchange at all. I don't feel as though I am giving anything up, in replacement for Ambroises’ contentment. I've whole heartedly enjoyed his stay, and there has been no 'swap' of any kind of my time. So far, I've learned that for an exchange you don't need to give up anything at all, in fact, you gain something.
I'd like to extend this though to everyday life,too. Why do we feel that we must always give up something in order to gain something else? Why must we feel that are life is a balanced scale between time, family, friends, leisure and work? Why do people always say "I had to give up on that dream, and do something else.”?
If there's one thing that Ambroise has taught me so far, than it is this: if you try hard enough, the word exchange is inexistent. There is no trade off between something worse and something better, there is no scale, and there is no 'giving up' of any kind. If you just look at the situation a little bit differently, you see that there is only gain. No exchange.
And this exchange has taught me precisely that. Nothing has been a weighing of different priorities, everything has been an opportunity.