could you send me a postcard from wherever you've gone? by Mariam Fuzail
Photography
Starting Over by Harshil Parikh
Nonfiction
It was the 5th of August when I said goodbye to everyone that I knew in India. I was overwhelmed with excitement to go to the United States, meet my relatives there, and start a new chapter in my life. At the same time, I was saddened to leave my best friends and the life I had become accustomed to.
As the flight took off, my excitement was mixed with nostalgia as I thought about my experiences in India. I remembered the summer camp in which I went to the Himalayas with friends. As the team captain, I led my group to build the perfect tent by assigning tasks to everyone and ensuring they were completed properly. I asked one of my friends to dig holes and helped another friend to securely place posts and stakes in the holes. Then I joined the sticks with hitch-knots, which only I knew how to tie. With everyone’s dedication towards the goal, and my leadership and coordination, we made the perfect tent and won the competition.
Starting over on a new continent with completely different customs, routines, languages and weather patterns can be very overwhelming. Not only did I have to learn to navigate all this, I had to do it while starting my senior year in high school two weeks late! SATs, college applications, missed coursework, and AP Calculus were all things that I had to take care of right away. Balancing all of these things was certainly difficult, but I refused to give up on any of them. With my love for music, I would put on my headphones, queue my favorite playlist, and get to work on tackling these challenges. I used a free hour in my school schedule to either finish my homework or to go to the Math Resource Center to catch up on missed classwork. After school, I would rush home to prepare for the SAT exam and the weekly tests in my AP class. On weekends I often gave up movie nights or visits with family so I could further prepare for the SAT exam and work on the college application process. As the first semester came to a close, with hard work, perseverance, and diligent time management, I was able to successfully meet all of my deadlines.
There were plenty of other challenges beyond time management and coursework-related adjustments that came with my very recent move to the U.S. For example, in order to graduate from high school I had to take classes in U.S. history and civics, topics that I had never encountered before. I found myself in a classroom discussing events in American history that everyone around me had a much deeper knowledge of. Rather than getting frustrated at my relative disadvantage, or isolating myself from other students to hide my lack of knowledge, I took my situation in stride and embraced opportunities to be vocal and ask questions to fill in the gaps in my knowledge. I was pleased to find that both my teachers and fellow students were eager to help me get caught up. This supportiveness was reassuring and encouraged me to continue being bold in my interactions. I actively reached out to other students to build friendships and sought out teachers during non-class time to get help with missed assignments. As I reflect on my first months in the U.S., I realize that it is very easy for students new to a country to fall into the background. I am glad that my un-shy personality allowed me to avoid that fate and better assimilate into my new home.
My leadership skills, hard working attitude, and bold personality are my greatest strengths. So, with great ambition and an unafraid curiosity, I look forward to heading to college and taking on life’s next challenge, all while queuing up a fresh playlist and continuing to refuse to give up.
As the flight took off, my excitement was mixed with nostalgia as I thought about my experiences in India. I remembered the summer camp in which I went to the Himalayas with friends. As the team captain, I led my group to build the perfect tent by assigning tasks to everyone and ensuring they were completed properly. I asked one of my friends to dig holes and helped another friend to securely place posts and stakes in the holes. Then I joined the sticks with hitch-knots, which only I knew how to tie. With everyone’s dedication towards the goal, and my leadership and coordination, we made the perfect tent and won the competition.
Starting over on a new continent with completely different customs, routines, languages and weather patterns can be very overwhelming. Not only did I have to learn to navigate all this, I had to do it while starting my senior year in high school two weeks late! SATs, college applications, missed coursework, and AP Calculus were all things that I had to take care of right away. Balancing all of these things was certainly difficult, but I refused to give up on any of them. With my love for music, I would put on my headphones, queue my favorite playlist, and get to work on tackling these challenges. I used a free hour in my school schedule to either finish my homework or to go to the Math Resource Center to catch up on missed classwork. After school, I would rush home to prepare for the SAT exam and the weekly tests in my AP class. On weekends I often gave up movie nights or visits with family so I could further prepare for the SAT exam and work on the college application process. As the first semester came to a close, with hard work, perseverance, and diligent time management, I was able to successfully meet all of my deadlines.
There were plenty of other challenges beyond time management and coursework-related adjustments that came with my very recent move to the U.S. For example, in order to graduate from high school I had to take classes in U.S. history and civics, topics that I had never encountered before. I found myself in a classroom discussing events in American history that everyone around me had a much deeper knowledge of. Rather than getting frustrated at my relative disadvantage, or isolating myself from other students to hide my lack of knowledge, I took my situation in stride and embraced opportunities to be vocal and ask questions to fill in the gaps in my knowledge. I was pleased to find that both my teachers and fellow students were eager to help me get caught up. This supportiveness was reassuring and encouraged me to continue being bold in my interactions. I actively reached out to other students to build friendships and sought out teachers during non-class time to get help with missed assignments. As I reflect on my first months in the U.S., I realize that it is very easy for students new to a country to fall into the background. I am glad that my un-shy personality allowed me to avoid that fate and better assimilate into my new home.
My leadership skills, hard working attitude, and bold personality are my greatest strengths. So, with great ambition and an unafraid curiosity, I look forward to heading to college and taking on life’s next challenge, all while queuing up a fresh playlist and continuing to refuse to give up.