There and Back Again
It’s been a month since leaving Kolkata and ASED, and I can say that it has certainly been an interesting experience to be back home. I’d say the most fitting word that keeps emerging from my reflections is weird — I wasn’t sure what to expect but being home is weird. Sorry mom. Although six weeks is not a long amount of time in the big scheme of things, such a radical immersion into a different culture seems to warp time and make it seem much longer. The Indian culture provided me with a wildly different perspective that what I had grown accustomed to in the United States, and I won’t ever forget the experiences of my summer in Kolkata. Since returning home, I have found myself much more reserved than usual. That isn’t to say that I don’t engage in conversation or meet new people; I have definitely done plenty of that. Rather, I tend to shy away from any prolonged discussion or interaction, particularly when I think the subject of my time in India will be brought up. I generally think of myself as a decent conversationalist, but I have experienced great difficulty when it comes to describing my internship and the events that came with it. In my opinion, describing events that another person cannot imagine (like complete and abject poverty) does not seem worth it, for one would have to actually see these to understand the magnitude of the situation. Thus, I have kept a vast amount of my journey to myself, further retreating from discussion.
My biggest takeaway from India was the amazing sense of community that seemed to constantly surround us wherever we went. During my first day in Kolkata, we went to get lunch from a restaurant that should have been about a 10 minute walk (never trust Nick Fazio if you need directions). Long story short, we needed 30+ minutes and one extremely nice citizen to get there, and it really drove home the point that people in Kolkata were willing to actively go out of their way to help you with whatever you needed. My incredible housemates — Nick, Abby, Alyssa, and Andrea — all worked to create the same sense of community within our apartment, and it made for an enjoyable environment that I was always excited to come home to.
I would say I learned a multitude of lessons about myself in the six weeks, but one has particularly stuck with me. I tend to take many of the relationships around me for granted, and being on the other side of the world meant that our contact was extremely limited. Returning home, I have greatly enjoyed seeing my friends and family again and have begun to truly appreciate the value they bring to my life. On top of that, I also now have four more friends from our journey in Kolkata to spend time with, and I wouldn’t have wanted to be in India with anyone else. Overall, the transition of lifestyle from India to the United States has been difficult, but I am glad to be home, and I hope to use my experiences from India to guide my future.
