Youth Voices: All is Flux, Nothing Stays Still - My First 72 Hours in India
I don’t think I truly believed myself — that a summer of warmth, Telugu, and Hyderabad was right around the corner — until the plane lifted off the ground in the Chicago airport. The past few weeks have been a fever dream, fervently packing and unpacking with my sister until every necessity was tidily zipped away, and the dream seamlessly shifted as the last few humans turned into ants on the O’Hare runway. Reality awoke.
At first, it was a slow reality. If there is one thing I learned from the past three days, it is the bitterness of patience.
It was patience as I woke up at 5 am to board my flight to Chicago. Patience found me as I roamed around the labyrinth of the O’Hare Airport, waiting to meet my intern partner, Riya. It grew tired during the twelve hours to Abu Dhabi. Nevertheless, patience persisted as we flew four hours to Hyderabad, as Riya and I stood in line as the last people at immigration, and even when my suitcase didn’t arrive at the baggage claim. Although the 36-hour trip took everything out of me, submerging into the overly humid 10 pm night felt like a breath of fresh air. It was a taste of what the next 8 weeks would feel like, and a feeling of relaxation as we weaved through the roads to get to our beds....[CONTINUE READING]