I have been waiting for a long time for the perfect moment to write my first Bridge year related blog but now that I think about it, what would be that perfect moment; my first day with my house family, Ganesh Chaturthi in India or maybe simply my first day at school being a disaster? But despite those being quite huge events, I feel like it won't ever be enough to be considered the best thing to write about. It is similar to one procrastinating when the task is beyond or believed to be beyond ones skills.
So I changed my approach and asked myself who am I writing for; myself or my audience, what is it about: myself or the country. And you know what I don't think I can find those answers in a moving plane at 935km/h and 765km from Mumbai, but you know what, instead of it being about me or others, I am going to make it about us; that is my cohort of 2020 fellows, but from my perspective.
Meeting new people with whom we are supposed to get along can be stressful for some and the usual for others. We all knew there was something to learn from everyone around, just not why or how. We just knew we had to get along and work collaboratively. Everyone trying to be nice to each other, but me. I spent my week being sarcastic and roasting people, which means I was being racist, sexist, judgemental and despite being in the United States of America instead of stopping me, people were laughing.
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"You mean American as in from the continent"
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Forced to wear Hijab? – "Ask her first if she mind but before google ethnocentric because that's what you are."
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Ohh You speak so many languages – "Ya because am not from the US of America."
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Which country you going to? – Africa – "Don't you have Geography class at school?"
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Not gonna mention the ones am gonna get in trouble for.
But that worked for me, I got people to hang out with.
It was so easy for me to judge the other fellows, coming from a UWC, considering everything being said cliché, diversity being the normal but forgetting that that was why we needed diversity: to not judge but rather to see, different perspective to better understand. Considering oneself better just because one was privileged and at the same time attending a talk around privileges / diversity / discrimination by Dereca, I was disappointed in myself but for only 5 second because I got back at it. New environment means new opportunities so now is the time for me to get back to active listening and learning and with this in mind I will be arriving in India in now less that an hour. Right now am gonna nap before my motion sickness kicks in and everyone wishes to kick me out.