Exactly Where I am Supposed to Be

I am writing this on a flight from London to Philadelphia having slept an average of four hours in the last day. During what has seemed like an endless cycle of airports and flights to get back home, I have spent my time thinking about my experience at the Sehgal Foundation. I was sitting at Heathrow airport and it suddenly occurred to me that I wasn’t in India anymore. I wasn’t happy about it, I wasn’t sad about it, it just was. I didn’t compare London to New Delhi, I just smiled and realized the cultural experience I had just had. I knew at that moment something had changed in me.

Something that I haven’t liked to admit to myself is that the first few weeks that I was in Delhi I found myself in deep culture shock. I didn’t think it was something I should be capable of because I had done a decent amount of traveling. I didn’t even realize what it was until I came out of it. I have grown so much since those weeks of comparing every aspect of Indian culture to my previous experience’s, thinking every struggle I faced was something personal and that every other person in my position hasn’t faced the same things. That moment at the airport showed me how much I have grown, and I am proud of myself. I feel that I could go anywhere in the world and have an even more meaningful experience.

My time at the Sehgal Foundation didn’t just change me emotionally and spiritually but I made some important intellectual gains. The project that I worked on for eight weeks came to its conclusion with a presentation to the staff at the Sehgal Foundation. It showed me what I am capable of. I learned so much about the farmers in Mewat and even found some interesting solution to the impending struggles farmers will face because of climate change and salinization. When I was presentencing, it seemed like everything in my life, every choice I have made, had brought me to that point. I felt like I was exactly where I needed to be, doing exactly what I should be doing.