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This is America for us as
international students ...A storm of thoughts.... Dreams...
Maybe sadness combined with excitement for knowing something
new... Dreams... The faces of the people that you love and
pictures of the places that you never forget running through
your head.... Dreams... And you finally wake up at the end
of a very long trip that brought you to a fantastic land.
Nothing that you can recognize as yours and no one that can
recognize you. It is the very beginning of a new life surrounded
by opportunities and experiences that will make you stronger.
From the instant you breathe the strange air, you feel like
you are another person. Maybe it is a feeling of loneliness
or maybe of freedom. One way or the other, the feeling is
only yours because at that moment there are no friends to
share it with.
Later on, you have to continue, because making a life should
start by living from the very first day. And although nothing
that you learned seems enough, braveness and decision accompanied
you from your home country to start the journey. This is the
United States of America, as you expected it or not, with
wide highways and crowded streets, tall, wonderful buildings
as samples of power, and small farms as samples of hard work,
thriving cities and big acropolises, different accents, different
sounds, even the sky appears painted with a different blue.
Then the vastness of the Ohio State campus shows up with all
its splendor. The immensity of the Shoe impresses you and
the beauty of the Towers at night won’t fade away from
your memories. The insecurity to talk, to walk, to ask for
a favor and to socialize turns to confidence. Soon, after
the first impression, your mind settles down as well as your
body. You start feeling more comfortable with the environment,
the people and the habits. You learn how to react to different
situations, to live with a stranger that will become your
friend, to share your culture and to understand others. Classes
become a routine that you can deal with. You start absorbing
the system, or the system starts absorbing you- either way
you find everything easier.
As time passes, you get used to the taste of food that made
you sick one night and to the wet shoes after walking in the
snow. There are no more colds from committing the mistake
of going outside on that deceivingly sunny day when the temperature
was below zero. The Statue of Liberty starts getting a deeper
meaning, and you start feeling the red white and blue as a
little part of yourself. This is America for us as international
students. Sometimes it is the great, sometimes the unfortunate.
Many times it is the land of big achievements and triumphs,
few times the land of tragedy and defeats. Here we are in
the land where we always wanted to come. And from now on it
is up to us make to this experience worthwhile and to hope
always that we have made the right decision.
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