In twelve hours, I will be on a plane to the United States. However, as it is 4 in the afternoon, it seems like much shorter a time even than that. I've been away for so long that it was hard to imagine being home until my mother got here, and I'm sorry for her that an opportunity to explore a new place has been sprinkled with my excitement at the idea of going home.
Some travelers come through India and fall in love with the rich culture and ethnic lifestyle. Honestly I have not. I love all the people who I have become close with in my stay here, but as for the country or the culture I have no strong feelings any which way.
My study abroad is I guess in a lot of ways different from most. I spent a year living in a building which horrified my mother, having the aesthetic of a prison and less than hygienic cleanliness. Character building. I half the time was confronted with a language I never learned. My environment was loud, dangerous, and in almost every other aspect foreign. The food was different, the mannerisms, the activities.
But I think maybe the most forcefully different part of my study abroad compared to a lot of others has to do with all the different ways in which I had to change. I had to change so much of what generally defines us. I had to consciously change the way I spoke, my mannerisms, my reactions, the clothes I wore, the things I cared about, my sleeping schedule, and the activities in which I participated. Its gradual, its traumatic, its perhaps liberating, its unconscious, and its consciously decided, all in one. Its a process and a decision, and the outcome is unknown.
Its hard to give a culminating blog post on my last day in India. Likely I will notice effects, changes, and everything positive and negative for the next few years. But in an effort to sum - most people I talk to say I'm more confident and relaxed. I find I'm more willing to ask for help and show my frustration more quickly. When I read about Pakistan testing a middle range ballistic missile, I know that most of the lay Indians I meet don't blame them. I know that when I hear about Westerners going over to help small villages in the Himalayas rebuild their homes after floods, that these people do really appreciate it. When I hear talk about how India is a rising superpower, I only think about how stunned I am that it has stayed together for as long as it has, and that it operates with any kind of slight trajectory. I realize the power and importance of technology, which I used nearly every day of my stay to communicate with the people I love.
My experience is only vast, in what living a year in India has done to me, and what I've done to me in order to live in India. Going back, I can't anticipate what profound life changes would be typical of such an experience. There will still be daily challenges of the same and different types. Some may seem more manageable, but some will still be altogether new. I may be able to compare and contrast experiences and reactions from Sedona before and after living in India, but I don't expect to, and I am not planning on trying to.
Some travelers come through India and fall in love with the rich culture and ethnic lifestyle. Honestly I have not. I love all the people who I have become close with in my stay here, but as for the country or the culture I have no strong feelings any which way.
My study abroad is I guess in a lot of ways different from most. I spent a year living in a building which horrified my mother, having the aesthetic of a prison and less than hygienic cleanliness. Character building. I half the time was confronted with a language I never learned. My environment was loud, dangerous, and in almost every other aspect foreign. The food was different, the mannerisms, the activities.
But I think maybe the most forcefully different part of my study abroad compared to a lot of others has to do with all the different ways in which I had to change. I had to change so much of what generally defines us. I had to consciously change the way I spoke, my mannerisms, my reactions, the clothes I wore, the things I cared about, my sleeping schedule, and the activities in which I participated. Its gradual, its traumatic, its perhaps liberating, its unconscious, and its consciously decided, all in one. Its a process and a decision, and the outcome is unknown.
Its hard to give a culminating blog post on my last day in India. Likely I will notice effects, changes, and everything positive and negative for the next few years. But in an effort to sum - most people I talk to say I'm more confident and relaxed. I find I'm more willing to ask for help and show my frustration more quickly. When I read about Pakistan testing a middle range ballistic missile, I know that most of the lay Indians I meet don't blame them. I know that when I hear about Westerners going over to help small villages in the Himalayas rebuild their homes after floods, that these people do really appreciate it. When I hear talk about how India is a rising superpower, I only think about how stunned I am that it has stayed together for as long as it has, and that it operates with any kind of slight trajectory. I realize the power and importance of technology, which I used nearly every day of my stay to communicate with the people I love.
My experience is only vast, in what living a year in India has done to me, and what I've done to me in order to live in India. Going back, I can't anticipate what profound life changes would be typical of such an experience. There will still be daily challenges of the same and different types. Some may seem more manageable, but some will still be altogether new. I may be able to compare and contrast experiences and reactions from Sedona before and after living in India, but I don't expect to, and I am not planning on trying to.
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