Message to my baby sister as she goes to college this fall

Hey, you made it! Congrats on beginning a new chapter in your life. College is going to be really cool and good for you and I am excited for you. You are going to be in a new place, new country. Hope you brought things that are a memory of your hometown. You will miss it. You will miss your friends and your family. You will miss the streets you walked. You will miss riding on your motor scooter around town. But there are going to be exciting things in store for you. I wish that you will become a wonderful learned women. There will be hardship but it will make you understand life a little better. 

As you step into the school, everything will look really cool. First day, week, and month, I hope you explore, talk to people and make new friends. Do not get intimidated and overwhelmed about being a stranger there. All freshmen will feel that way. Instead cherish new encounters, people and environment. Lend a helping hand to someone. Smile a little and if someone smiles back, introduce yourself. Discover your favorite spot on campus. Take your new friends there and talk about why you are in college. Talk about your aspirations and theirs. Get excited about each other’s future.

Study. Prepare. Have a daily schedule. Go to the gym every morning, that is, if you wake up early. Or even better, go swimming regularly, if there is a pool. You can even try to be an athlete and join the college swim team.

Again, study. I will sound just like your school-teacher, but finish your homework everyday. Then when you have time go out for a movie or dinner in your friend’s car. Ask questions in class. Make friends with your classmates and professors. Pick classes that you can handle. Or may be ones that are challengingly fun. Have a plan to graduate on time. Learn. Use the professor’s office hours to discuss assignments or readings. And yes, read. Do your chapter readings on time. That is the best way to stay engaged in the class. Also buy books online; it is way cheaper than the bookstore. Buy them ahead of time and read.

Join a club or a sports team early on. You will build a family there. Find what you really enjoy other than classes and do them. Stay warm in the winters. Stay happy. Embrace the fall, spring and summer. They are all unique and you will find something nice about each. Hope your first snowfall will be beautiful.

You might find it hard to get a part-time job. May be get into research and ask your professors if they could make you their research assistant. Discover what intrigues you and perseveringly follow that. Do not get dejected.You will find it hard to manage your time.  Again, schedule all the fun parts and difficult parts of your day wisely.

Do not get uncomfortable in the cafeteria. Offer a seat to someone or sit with anybody. Frequent the library and read your favorite books. Do your homework there and take naps in between.

Visit a friend's family. They will treat you as their own. Be frugal but treat yourself sometimes. Decorate your dorm room with string lights and pictures of your favorite moments, people and things.  Create a bulletin board to stay up to date with things. Keep a daily or weekly journal too. Write your goals in it for the day, week or month. Buy a microwave and snack on some popcorn when you feel like. Or make a Nutella and bread cake.  Also, go to camping events and have smores.  Explore the community around campus. Visit the nearest big city and spend a night there with friends.

May be save some money or find a scholarship to study abroad. Plan ahead and figure out when and where. Go to school parties and learn a move or two. Get to know your school. It is your new home. Go to sporting events and cheer for your college team. Go to socials, pizza parties, and others. 

Visit us, your cousins, now and then and call us if you need somebody to talk to. Call your mom and dad every now and then. Hope you will learn a lot and make the best of your college life.

Love,

Richa

P.S. this is probably not it, hope you find much more to do, learn, and become.

Sometime in the late nineties

Blurb on Home

January 13, 2014. Sometime between 7pm and 8pm at Kathmandu Airport.

I am okay. It was my decision and I am okay now. I got what I wanted. Now, it is time to move forward. I am a cleansed soul from all the world evils, all the problems that wreck me now and then, all the pettiness and lack-lustreness: that is what being home does to you. I am embracing all that a month long home time has given me with a firm handle on my emotions. I am not crying because I got what I wanted. 

Family, friends, pet doggies, well-wishers - they were so excited to see me and wish me well. All that support I am taking with me to face other challenges. That is what being home for a month does to you. 

You were missing it so much and now since you got what you wanted, it won't be nice to miss it even more. You'd rather get up and go on and wait for another time and place when it will feel like home. From here on, life will hopefully be roses and butterflies: because being home after so long does that to you

PUBLISHED: High School Yearbook Write-up

I found this article I wrote for my school's annual magazine. It's such a high school me!...

I miss you guys so much. The school is big and everything, but nobody is nice. Only a few girls talk to me and the teachers look as if they are about to insult me. I want to come back!

As I hugged my friends on the last official day of my second school, I could not help recall my first few months there. I used to write letters like this to friends in my previous school. I used to cry as soon as I returned home after school. I sat for hours wondering if the kind-hearted principal of my old school (for ten years) would take me back. Since my parents had spent enough for the new admission, I did not want them to buy the costly winter uniform, thinking, “I would go back anyways!” Even my fourteen-year-old sister vividly remembers how much I sulked then. So three years later, when I bade teary-eyed farewell to friends, the irony made me smile; I did not wish to leave.  The school I dreaded before changed the whole picture as it fostered me with values, challenges and ambition.

The transition had been like never before. It was an all-girl, highly reputed institution with more rules and more teachers. The students seemed so cold and discomforting. They looked at me as if I was an exotic new animal at the zoo. They asked me questions about my earlier grades and school. I used to be very loud and confident, but there, I was a lamb. When teachers enquired me I gave very meek replies. I just could not cope with all the novelty, and sorely missed my earlier school.

Still, I had to try as I did not find myself going back or forward.  My parents had chosen a better school for my sake. If I wanted to make things right, I could do so by making the most of the “opportunity” they had given to me.  So I continued being a good regular student. I did my assignments on time. I studied hard for tests.  Unlike others, I was very responsive in class and approached especially my class teacher if I faced problems.

First term ended and my scores showed outstanding numbers! That’s when I got a little push to loosen up, be a little less nervous. Also, people talked about me. “Oh, she’s the one who topped in English!” And a few even asked me to tutor them! Teachers too appreciated my attempts. So, my lost self-confidence was retrieved back and I embarked on a journey that later proved to be full of friends-for-life, unforgettable moments, amazing teachers and a hoard of activities.

Instead of classmates, I ended up with three of my teachers in the elephant ride during an educational trip in sophomore year and thoroughly enjoyed it. I was on the first row of our green-house march past during the annual sports day the same year. Similarly, in my first year there, despite my (disappointingly) mediocre show in the track and field events, singing in the school choir for the school’s golden jubilee celebration programs was a feat.

My pronunciation of “Sh” as just “S” improved while reading Shakespeare’s stories and I gradually stopped feeling embarrassed my ‘new student’ accent. In class, I got the title “Question mark” from peers for driving the teachers crazy with my questions.

All in all, the experience was exhilarating and if I had quit at the beginning itself, I would not have become what I am today.   The phase of adaptation that I went through gave me insight to tackle many more changes to come and I have learnt that hardships make us stronger.  I feel that I will never have such problems regarding changes as I know that things will pass.  I will rather extract the most out of the difficulties I face and become a stronger person.  My comprehension of the fact that new developments in life can be awarding has left me yelling, “bring it on”!

© 2011