Taking the plunge
Travelling abroad is no big deal anymore. The world has shrunk. But ten years ago, when I decided to go to the USA for under-graduate studies, I was the only one in our circle who had this ‘wild’ idea. Only my parents supported me.
Making a potentially life-altering decision is never easy. But I learnt from my parents to act on anything that my heart is set on. And so I made my decision, that I was going to college in America. I was 15.
The idea didn’t just come out of nowhere. In fact, it was planted by a complete stranger, someone I met at one of those science fairs for high school geeks.
I have always loved studying biology and so I figured I had to get an MBBS degree. But this stranger opened my head to other options. My plan, he said, was all wrong. My interest was in genetics, more specifically, research. The stranger was a geneticist himself and told me, “If you really want be a scientist, if you really want to do genetics, go to America and get a PhD.”
And so my journey began with me leaving my MBBS entrance coaching class.
The deal my parents put before me was that I needed to get a really good scholarship. I started preparing for the SAT and TOEFL tests, studying to ensure great scores in grades 11 and 12 of high school, applying to 24 US colleges, getting acceptances, a significant scholarship…
The hardest were the application questions to be answered, especially those that required me to explain who I was and who did I want to become!
And then there was the struggle of sorting out rejection as well as acceptance letters. Also, it wasn’t enough to be accepted; a really good scholarship was necessary. The average college tuition fee was US$30,000, an impossible amount. So I waited. And then came the morning of my 12th grade board exam. It was 6 am and I had my physics exam that day. The courier guy came. My memory of opening that letter is always in slow motion. There it was my 95 per cent scholarship! I was going to the USA! I had succeeded. I had never screamed so loud.
I finished the rest of my board exams and spent the summer saying goodbye to all the people I had grown up with and who helped make me the person I was becoming… and day-dreaming about the coming freedom and long awaited independence.
I carefully packed my life and all the possible tokens that reminded of things dear to me in four large suitcases. I was leaving home to go to a place I had never seen before to start a life I knew nothing about. Making it through that period gave me a confidence that I think many kids develop during such a phase. That time also helped me discover my educational aptitude.
As it turned out, a little maturing on my part changed everything. Who you are at 15 does not determine who you will become at 25.
The writer is a PhD student in the US
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