Despite moving to a foreign country when I was three years old, I have never felt like my connection with my mother tongue or homeland was ever cut. A major part of the reason why is because I have always been able to find people with similar backgrounds and experiences, helping me find the right balance between modernity and traditional culture.
Last summer, I went to India with my family after 6 years. I didn’t really remember much of my last trip, but I decided I would make this one count. I wanted to visit so many cities, landmarks, museums, villages, and helped plan my trip with my parents. However, on this particular trip, I think the people I met left a way deeper impression on me than what I did see and photograph.
Living in a society where my family and I are just like everyone else, has blurred the amount of privilege that I am living in the midst of. My parents are from small villages on the outskirts of the big city of Chennai, Tamil Nadu. I’ve heard the saying “it takes a village to raise a child” multiple times, but I witnessed it for real when I stayed in my dad’s place, Thirukazhukundram.
As I listened to the people there tell me stories about their lives’, how much they’ve had to go through, the challenges they overcame, it made me “zoom out” from my own life, and notice the big picture things that we often forget everyday. Something that stuck with me is when my parents were talking about their move to America, because it happened so fast. When they were leaving the friends, family, and neighbors they knew all their life to live in a foreign country thousands of miles away, they never had the time to realize, and before they knew it, poof! their entire life was changed. One of their friends described it as a big empty space after they left.
Because this trip took place the summer after I graduated high school, and before starting college, the notion of a big and sudden change did scare me a little bit. I hadn’t thought about the large amount of newness that was going to come into my life in such little time. I was scared I wouldn’t be able to find people like me, who understood my background, my experiences. Finding my place was so much easier at home because my parents knew what they were doing, and I would mostly just tag along and make friends along the way. But university would be different. Way different. I would have to go out of my way to meet new people, get to know them, and try a whole lot of new things to also get to know myself.
This was when I started to write in my gratitude journal, and if you’re picturing a cute little journal with colorful flowers all over it, you’re technically right because that is what I spent my $10 on. But, over the busy months, it has transformed into my Notes app. By being able to appreciate the luxury of having so many people who truly support me constantly around me, it has made me so grateful, not only when I’m happy, but in times of stress, where nothing else in the world seems to matter.
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