From India to the US

Fasten your seatbelts! Today I am going to take you all on my wonderful journey from India to the United States. India is  a country of  thousands years of civilization and culture. I am proud that I was born in India despite various lacunae in public and civil life. I love my city Pune which is also known as the Oxford of East with great climate and culture. I went to Abhinava Vidyalaya English Medium School in Pune. I had many friends at school and society complex where I spent most of childhood. Childhood is wonderful time without any worries, cocooned by parents, pampered by a big family. I used to play tennis for hours at a local club called Solaris. My parents signed me up when I was just a seven year old. It was nice playing out there. As India is a tropical country there was no problem of snow and the winters were usually warm. The minimum temperature in winters in my hometown, Pune, was 69 degrees Fahrenheit. So I used to play tennis all year round. Along with tennis, I was enrolled in many extracurricular activities like Indian Classical Music. My weekdays were busy with school, tennis, swimming and music classes. Weekends were full of fun activities like visiting a school for children with special needs and going for a hike with the underprivileged girls. My parents were a part of an international organization known as Round Table. This organization was involved in philanthropic activities and worked for the benefits for the children with special needs and underprivileged. That is why, I was able to attend events where I was able to interact with people and organize various games for the children. During vacations, my family and I went to many international tourist destinations like the United Kingdom, China and Hong Kong, Mauritius, Thailand and the Middle East because my parents believed that seeing multifaceted cultures will help me to develop the Global Citizen mentality. Maybe, that is why it was so easy for me to get acclimatized to a different culture in the United States. My parents wanted me to be a Global Citizen, however, they also wanted me to not forget my culture and my roots, hence, we toured different tourist destinations in India quarter we spent a weekend at local hill stations of Mahabaleshwar, Konkan like Himalayas, Goa, Kerala, Delhi-Agra, Mumbai, Hyderabad and every would celebrate wholeheartedly. Overall, I had a great time in India. I enjoyed beaches and mountain forts around Pune. I love Indian movies which i saw, festivals which I participated.

           

And then I land at JFK on August 13, 2016. My first drive here in the US was JFK to Rocky Hill,

Connecticut. I was amazed after seeing the Manhattan skyline on the way home. grocery store resembled the one in Home Alone where Kevin went to buy a toothbrush. The second day of my arrival, my parents took me to a local grocery store. I loved the experience. After a few weeks came the D-Day; my selection as everyone had a common schedule designed by the teacher. So the

appointment with the guidance counselor at Rocky High School for class selection. It was a new experience for me. Because in India there was no class the first day at school was interesting. I made a lot of friends on my first day at school. The teachers gave us the course syllabus. The school

same classmates for your entire school career. As I was new to the country, my guidance counselor, gave me all academic classes in my freshman year. The experience in the US was different than India. As there were no frequent community service hours, sports and an extracurricular activity like attending quizzes we just had midterms and finals. And those grades defined our careers.

In contrast, here a student needs to be well developed. One needs to have a club. It was fun though! I was able to study and play tennis. I had to adjust test; whose scores decided whether I needed English classes. However, I got a to the classes as the application of knowledge was preferred rather than memorizing it. By the end of the freshman year, my guidance counselor gave me honors classes due to my A’s in all my academic classes. I had to appear for the ELL where I got a 100 on it hence I was not enrolled in any ELL classes. My sophomore year was the career of my choice! I scored good and my GPA was not getting affected as I had a lot of Honors classes. So all is well when it ends well! Transitioning from India to the US was a huge change for me; however, it opened lots of paths for me to explore and choose a fruitful career.