It was a rainy night, and as I stood there crying in my mother's arms, people around asked my father why he was sending such a young girl all alone abroad. As I went in for immigration, I couldn't stop turning around to wave out to my parents and my two uncles who had come to drop me off at the airport.
I boarded the plane, feeling a heavy sense of loss, and fear.
At the CDG airport, as people around me glided along as if they came there everyday, I couldn't help feeling proud of myself. All of 19, I was about to start a new adventure, one that would turn my life (or at least the following three years) upside down, one that would fundamentally change me as a person...a little for the better, a little for the worse.
I still remember those early months in Paris. I felt so hopelessly lost and lonely. I yearned for my family, for home-cooked meals, even for the sound of hindi or english. I just wanted the 2 years to go by, get my degree and fly back home for good.
It was three years ago that I came to Paris, and yes, I am still here...not wanting to go back, at least not yet. I still yearn for my family, for home cooked meals, for the sound of hindi and english, but I have found my comfort zone here. You may think it's because I have a routine here now....but that's the thing. It's the lack of routine that makes the experience so exciting. In three years I have stayed at three different places, studied at two different universities, worked in two different companies, met people of various nationalities. I feel a sense of freedom, of independence here.
And above all, it's PARIS!!! A remarkably beautiful city that revealed itself to me beyond the usual clichés. As I stand every afternoon in my office's balcony on the 7th floor on the Champs-Elysées and take a look at the city, I can't help feeling privileged. I still feel the entire experience is unreal when I sit outside the Pyramide du Louvre and contemplate on the vastness of the place. I still feel calmness and quiet seep into me when I go to the Jardin de Luxembourg with a good book for company. I definitely feel the positive vibes of the amazing people I have met here...people with different horizons and experiences.
Paris has taught me to look forward to little moments of joy, to accept change whether good or bad, to open my mind to endless possibilites. That is what I like the most about being here...the endless possibilities.
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