Embracing Change

Priyadarshini 

As someone who has trouble changing a routine even by the minutest step, adjusting to a new country is a tall order. Little did I know that applications and admissions were just the over-hyped, information-dense beginnings of a journey that is meandering, strenuous and sweltering (here in Texas!). This is not an attempt to scare the bold and enterprising ones who will attempt this journey, but a little help on how to cope through four steps.

Firstly, know that you are not alone in this. There have been several days I simply couldn’t stand to look at the framed photo of my family on the desk. It was a painful reminder of the life I had to uproot to a new corner of the world, one filled with sacrifices that seemed to accumulate every hour. Video calling is supposedly a boon but seeing your home again as though you are a stranger looking in from the outside, is just painful. It does get better with time, but this also depends on how you spend your time and the people you surround yourself with. Try not to be alone with your thoughts. It helps to share, just as I am now.

Next, envision yourself achieving something, finishing a task. How do you feel after it? I personally find it helpful to imagine my own happiness after competing something, making me more determined to finish the task at hand by knowing how joyous I will feel in the end. It feels very easy to procrastinate, in a system that demands a lot from you only when the assignments come knocking, so try not to leave tasks pending. Whether it’s reading the class notes in advance or mopping up that nasty kitchen floor, just do it! You will feel good about it later.

Thirdly, cooking. It’s so easy to fall into the trap of feeding yourself “whatever” and “whenever.” Making full, nutritious meals is admittedly not an easy thing to do, but, if possible, it is an absolute necessity. Fuel your brain with the right things while not pushing your time to eat back more than necessary. Your poor tummy didn’t ask to move to a new country, it’s just here for the ride. Treat it well.

Try to be extremely accommodative, but at the same time don’t let people run you over. Family will always be there for you, but they can’t help you from hundreds and thousands of miles away. Friends are your chosen family- they will be there for you as much as you are for them. Mishaps are a given in life here-, and I can personally attest to this. I was once stuck out in the night with no way home, had my cooker (filled with my dinner) jammed to the point of no opening, and my flat-mate went back to India – and yet, it was my friends that helped me get through it all. My friends and I booked a cab (even though we had no methods of payment with us), we banged our cooker in the middle of the night until it opened (probably waking up ghosts while doing so) and put notices out for a new flat mate. It was the experiences from this night that made my friends and I realize that the biggest worries in life, at least as a student, aren’t faced alone. We weren’t alone in facing each of these problems, nor are we the only ones to encounter things like that. We’re all in the same boat here, facing the same gaping void in front of our brightly imagined futures. 

All this to say, that nothing will make sense until you set out to do it. I was a big-time worrier, frantic that future plans may never came to fruition, anxious if the present didn’t pan out like I thought it would; but living here has started to knock some sense into my silly, neurotic brain. Sure, it may give you some measure of peace to plan out entire days like clockwork, but you can never plan out life in all its unpredictable, crazy zaniness. 

Embrace it as it comes.