India - 10 Weeks in a New Land (Part 1)
I haven’t yet written a personal piece for my blog. My life generally tends to be fairly routine, so what do I have to write about that would be interesting enough to put on a blog? The answer is a three-month trip to India!
In a last-minute acceptance from a wait-listed position, I was invited to go to Bangalore, India through my school’s student-run program, and intern for 10 weeks with a non-governmental organization (NGO). The NGO in question is a long-running organization which focuses on the rights of children and child labourers. I would be leaving in early May and returning at the end of July for a total of 11 weeks and 4 days, or 82 days, in India.
I was given all of two days to accept or reject the opportunity, and it came out of the blue after I had assumed that my progression off of the waitlist would never happen. In fact, I had finished submitting an application to work on-campus with the housing department for the summer just minutes before I got the e-mail saying I had been accepted to go to India.
Background information on me: I have an anxiety problem. I have chosen to do nothing about it so far, although I acknowledge that I probably should. Working and being in unfamiliar and stressful situations tends to exacerbate the problem. So when I received this e-mail I didn’t know what to do. Of course, I had applied for a reason. I had every intention of accepting a position in any of the numerous Global South countries that the program offers if I got the chance. But when faced with the reality of going somewhere so extremely different from the Western culture that I was raised in and have never left in my life, I was nervous. What if I accepted and then I had intense anxiety the entire time I was there? That would be 10 weeks of feeling awful, scared, nervous and upset, and likely crying non-stop. What if I had to leave early because of it and I took the opportunity away from someone else or ruined our school’s reputation with the organization? Plus, I wanted this experience for my resume. What would I do if all I could say about my summer was that I attempted to go to India, but failed because of a mental health issue that I haven’t dealt with, and didn’t work for the rest of the summer because by that point it was too late to find a job?
Essentially, I had a massive worry mill going on inside my head. I phoned up my best consulting partner, my mom, and told her that ‘oh hey, by the way, I could go to India for the summer.’ She was very excited for me, because she knew that I had wanted to get a position. Despite often being the concerned personality-type when it comes to any sort of out-of-the-box activity, in this case somehow my mom wasn’t concerned. She immediately encouraged me to go, and expressed little concern for my safety (in the best way), unlike the majority of the rest of my family once they found out. She stressed that it would be an opportunity of a lifetime, and I should definitely do it. I had already known that I kind of had to say yes, so her motherly support just solidified the decision.
What sort of regret would I have had if I let my anxiety stop me from having an amazing experience and opportunity for personal growth? So I sent an acceptance e-mail. I was going to India.
I was going to be with two other students from my school, and we would all be working at the same organization, travelling and living together. As the sole female and sole white person of the trio, I made the boys promise not to leave me in the dust to be kidnapped or something equally terrifying, since I would so obviously be a foreigner. We had never met before, so we were nearly strangers when I met with them to discuss booking flights and accommodations.
I am a bit of a compulsive planner. I need to make sure that I have accounted for everything, and that I have done everything with plenty of time to spare, so I took the lead on most of the organising for our trip. If you ever travel to India, you should note that you need a visa and a valid passport, so be sure to arrange that early. You never know what sort of problems or weird delays may pop up, and I was very unclear on the requirements when I filled out the application, despite e-mailing the agency for clarification.
Finally, everything was planned, exams were over and I had packed for my adventure. My family doesn’t live in the province where I go to school, so this trip also meant that I wouldn’t see them until August, and wouldn’t be spending the majority of the summer in my home province for the first time ever. I called my mom a number of times in the last few days I had in Canada, alternately very calm and excited about the journey, and freaking out over how terrifying it was. The night before my flight, I didn’t sleep at all. I tried really hard, but I was so anxious the whole time, wondering what on earth I had gotten myself into. It was a very unpleasant night. Nevertheless, I survived, and I got up the next morning, did final packing checks and house-keeping activities, and then set off for the airport.
