An Exchange Student with no Friends
The scenes that I always used to see through the television screen I am living within them right now. I can't even begin to explain how enormously privileged I felt when I found out that I had availed the scholarship that almost everyone around me was obsessed with. Well, thanks to this degree-exchange program, I am getting the chance to live in United States for free and I get pocket money for basically doing nothing.
I was a bit skeptical about coming to Ohio Northern University solely because I read on Wikipedia that it was situated in a small village of Ada. The thought of living in a village terrified me as I wanted to be a part of city life and do things like visit target, go to Jonas Brothers' concert, go whale watching , skydive and whatnot. Now that I think about it the village of Ada is like a serene painting that a painter would carefully construct if he was asked to describe the sensation of peace visually. Everyone is extremely helpful and nice but I am still not doing great when it comes to making friends as compared to other International students. If you ask me about my friends then I will tell you that in the previous two weeks I have befriended six South Asian students, bunch of ducks, a lot of fish and two black swans. Something tells me most of my friends like me because I bring them bread and rest of them hangout with me because I am weird. We are all Asians but I fascinate them with my extraordinary ability to complain about everything and my superpower to trip over air. They find it extremely assuming that I have been to the health center on campus twice already.
I still have 16 weeks till I go back to Pakistan and I am sure that my family will not be happy when they will see the gallery of phone filled with pictures of animals instead of humans. Instead of returning home as an exchange student with no friends I think it's time I initiate conversation with fellow Homo sapiens.
Picture: PAC lake at Ohio Northern University
how can someone be too full of words that she can write whatever she wants to !
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ReplyDeleteBeing a student of university in small town I can totally relate to your situation! I loved your way of explaining the scenario! Because when I was asked for description of my town and university I couldn't describe. You put all my feelings into words which I couldn't! YOU ARE AMAZING
ReplyDeleteI know that it doesn't compare to the distance you have traveled to come to school here, but I was nervous coming out to this village of Ada too. My journey may only be 8 hours but I can understand how intimidating it can be to make new friends. Now I'm not expert, but one thing I learned from my time here is be true to you. For a while I thought I had to act like everyone else to "fit it" so I could make friends which is exhausting to say the least. While you do get to experience The United States and the cultures of this country, remember you bring your culture and experiences with you that many of us may not have come across before. There is so much value in that. Anyways I say all of that in hopes that in encourages you as you continue to make friends and I hope your experience here is awesome!
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