It was around 6 pm on a Friday night and I heard a knock on my door, and I knew it must be Diana. I invited her to come in and sit so we could have a little chat. Being my SA, we started the conversation with the usual "What's your plan for the weekend?", "How have classes been so far?", "How're you liking Emory" etc. Even though we were sitting in MY room, her presence and concern made me feel a lot more comfortable than I had felt in the past week.
Without wasting too much time, I jumped straight onto the question and asked her "How was it like when you first came to the US from Russia?" She thought for a moment and then responded, "Before coming here, I went to a boarding school in England, where I was an outsider, and the people there were sort of 'cold' towards outsiders, making it hard for me to fit in."
As soon as she mentioned going to boarding school in a foreign country, I instantly felt a connection with what she was saying and how it felt being an outsider in a foreign land, since I went to a boarding school myself. She further went on to describe how she had to mould herself to the way people were in Britain whereas in the US, it was completely paradoxical as people were a lot more friendlier. In her words, "The thing that made me fall in love with Emory and moreover America was that I got to be more of an individual here than in high school."
As she went on describing her experiences, I kept thinking how blessed we all are to be able to study in an environment, where people appreciate and respect each other's identities. Diana also mentioned that when she first came to Emory, people thought it was really "cool" how she was from Russia and chose to study in America. As our conversation continued, I asked her if she got a big culture shock when she came to America. At this point, Diana's response really got me thinking in terms of how big of an impact America has in countries all over the world. She said, " I feel like for international students when we come to America, it's not as big of a culture shock compared to American students if they were to go and live in any country in
the East. I think this is mainly because America has really influenced other cultures everywhere and sort of dug it's way in, especially in terms of the movies and TV shows we watch, the music we listen, the kind of clothes we wear etc. All of this is American so we kind of know what to expect when we come here." We went on discussing the similarities between Russia and India in the way America has had an influence on our respective countries.
We talked about how freshman year can be challenging, but at the same time equally exciting because you don't know what's going to come your way. I asked her whether she found the coursework and assignments in general harder than usual, because she's an international student. She replied saying that since English was not exactly her second language and she could speak it fluently, it became a lot easier to cope up with classes and finish homework assignments. Also, going to an international school helped her since she had an idea about specific terminology, especially in sciences. The challenging bit, as we discussed was not the language barrier but the amount of workload we have. Although, Diana is a sophomore student and probably has a ton more work than me, I was able to understand what she felt. That probably explains how hard college can be. She explained to me that the environement can be intimidating at first but you will eventually find your place in the crowd.
As our conversation started coming to an end I asked her, "What is the one thing you miss about home the most?" She subtly smiled and said, "My little brother" and in the moment I went "Aww.." She talked about how it can be hard to stay in touch with family mostly because of the time difference and how busy everyone is. Even though it's been a little more than a month since I moved to America after spending the summer at home, I can already feel the difference between facetiming or skyping my family and actually physically being present. The calmness in the room made me feel as if both of us had started missing home a little bit and I guess Diana realised that too. With a slight pause she excitedly said "On the brighter side, we international students have family and friends everywhere." Listening to that, the smile on my face did return.
I know that people often say, we always miss what we don't have, but I guess there's really always someone to miss wherever we go.
Without wasting too much time, I jumped straight onto the question and asked her "How was it like when you first came to the US from Russia?" She thought for a moment and then responded, "Before coming here, I went to a boarding school in England, where I was an outsider, and the people there were sort of 'cold' towards outsiders, making it hard for me to fit in."
As soon as she mentioned going to boarding school in a foreign country, I instantly felt a connection with what she was saying and how it felt being an outsider in a foreign land, since I went to a boarding school myself. She further went on to describe how she had to mould herself to the way people were in Britain whereas in the US, it was completely paradoxical as people were a lot more friendlier. In her words, "The thing that made me fall in love with Emory and moreover America was that I got to be more of an individual here than in high school."
As she went on describing her experiences, I kept thinking how blessed we all are to be able to study in an environment, where people appreciate and respect each other's identities. Diana also mentioned that when she first came to Emory, people thought it was really "cool" how she was from Russia and chose to study in America. As our conversation continued, I asked her if she got a big culture shock when she came to America. At this point, Diana's response really got me thinking in terms of how big of an impact America has in countries all over the world. She said, " I feel like for international students when we come to America, it's not as big of a culture shock compared to American students if they were to go and live in any country in
the East. I think this is mainly because America has really influenced other cultures everywhere and sort of dug it's way in, especially in terms of the movies and TV shows we watch, the music we listen, the kind of clothes we wear etc. All of this is American so we kind of know what to expect when we come here." We went on discussing the similarities between Russia and India in the way America has had an influence on our respective countries.
We talked about how freshman year can be challenging, but at the same time equally exciting because you don't know what's going to come your way. I asked her whether she found the coursework and assignments in general harder than usual, because she's an international student. She replied saying that since English was not exactly her second language and she could speak it fluently, it became a lot easier to cope up with classes and finish homework assignments. Also, going to an international school helped her since she had an idea about specific terminology, especially in sciences. The challenging bit, as we discussed was not the language barrier but the amount of workload we have. Although, Diana is a sophomore student and probably has a ton more work than me, I was able to understand what she felt. That probably explains how hard college can be. She explained to me that the environement can be intimidating at first but you will eventually find your place in the crowd.
As our conversation started coming to an end I asked her, "What is the one thing you miss about home the most?" She subtly smiled and said, "My little brother" and in the moment I went "Aww.." She talked about how it can be hard to stay in touch with family mostly because of the time difference and how busy everyone is. Even though it's been a little more than a month since I moved to America after spending the summer at home, I can already feel the difference between facetiming or skyping my family and actually physically being present. The calmness in the room made me feel as if both of us had started missing home a little bit and I guess Diana realised that too. With a slight pause she excitedly said "On the brighter side, we international students have family and friends everywhere." Listening to that, the smile on my face did return.
I know that people often say, we always miss what we don't have, but I guess there's really always someone to miss wherever we go.