Chapter 1

Hyderabad, India. The city of booming tech, the most hospitable people, and not another person our age within a 500 km radius. I am realizing how much I am missing knowing everyone around me which is what I had expected and making friends here at the Oakwood Residence is no easy task. I have made some connections with the staff who are obligated to be friendly and spark up small talk in the elevators whenever possible. A conversation will go as follows:

“Ah the 22nd floor, that’s pretty high up there”

“Yeah”

I didn’t realize what an emotional rollercoaster this would be. I thought it would be maybe a week of emotions and the rest would be smooth sailing but it has been more like daily ups and downs with small things triggering big responses, but I guess thats just the way it goes. I thought we would be in a more rural area, or one filled with street markets but the Financial District of Hyderabad is a concrete jungle and it looks essentially the same as anything you would see in the US.

Working abroad at Franklin Templeton is basically the same as any internship I would have in the US with exception of the company culture. Usually in any finance internship you would expect grueling work but this company focuses on the well-being of the individual. I still haven’t figured out if this is a company thing or a culture thing but it is refreshing seeing everyone in good spirits all the time, taking breaks and going about work as if it is a part of life, not all of it. I played soccer for an hour and a half with 12 other co-workers and no one cared. During the school year I was in the American mindset, doing a million things at once, all for self or career improvement but I am understanding how unhealthy that was and how good I feel actually getting 8 hours of sleep a night.

Since my internship doesn’t directly affect the community and I am not sure I can actually publicize my work at Franklin Templeton, I will talk about a volunteer opportunity I was fortunate to find at a public elementary school. Somehow their need for someone who knew english and origami aligned with my limited skill set and I happily took the position and have never met a more excited group of children. Since these schools never get the adequate resources from the government, students here usually fall way behind. Since english is the language of business, knowing the language well is a huge determinant of their future success. Something interesting I have heard and can now attest to is that children are all the same. Amidst all the cultural differences, environments in which we grow, parents, kids all act the same way with their curiosity and carefree attitudes. It makes me think, what happens to people along the way?

Something unique I’ve noticed is that Hyderabad, India is not all like some of the cities in developing countries I have visited before. India does not need to rely on tourism to run its economy which means not everything is catered to the vacationer and westernized because they need to. Everything is authentic here because they are places actual Indian people go and I actually feel like I am apart of their culture and not just a visitor making the rounds.

The biggest idea that I have been trying to come to terms with was something I think my personal brand tried to convince me of before coming here. I wanted to visit a developing country because I wanted to see the world for what it really was, and that reality was going to be poverty like I had never seen before and that I should be serving wherever possible because I have had it so much better than all of the people I will be trying to help and shouldn’t try and have fun because it takes away from that mindset. But I can’t stay in that mindset consistently, especially not when I am in the Financial District and am working a regular internship where no one really thinks about that either. So I am just living life how I normally would, helping where I can but not thinking about it all the time like I thought I should. I don’t know what this means for me but lets see if I figure it out.

Also my phone was taken by a monsoon so I don’t have many pictures.