Personal Experience

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Must answer the question: Tell us about a personal quality, talent, accomplishment, contribution or experience that is important to you. What about this quality or accomplishment makes you proud and how does it relate to the person you are? Must be no longer than 500 words.

Tell us about a personal quality, talent, accomplishment, contribution or experience that is important to you. What about this quality or accomplishment makes you proud and how does it relate to the person you are?

It was a hot humid Thursday afternoon. The line in the airport was long and filled with excitement. People were headed to European and other Asian countries, while my family and I were leaving India to go back home to the United States. We were on a summer vacation in India because my parents missed seeing their families. It is not often that we travel to India from Texas. Airline tickets were expensive; however, as I have learned you cannot put a price on the value of your family.

I have lived in Texas for all of my life. The only family I have that live in the United States is my brother, my mother, and my father. The rest of my extended family, including grandparents, cousins, uncles, and aunts, live in India. None of them have ever come to the United States and they do not know what life in America is like. The perception is that everyone in the U.S. lives a prestigious and high-class lifestyle. Some of the perceptions may be true because we do have more opportunities such as education and consumer goods, but life here is not all that it seems. We have crime, corruption, and poverty just like in many other countries. When I traveled to India, I was scared because I was entering a country I knew little about. We arrived at the airport in India and the first thing that I felt was the heat and humidity. I asked my parents why it was so hot in the airport. They explained to me there is no air conditioning in buildings like in the United States. I was shocked by this for I had always lived in an air conditioned house and traveled in an air conditioned car in Texas. I pushed the thought out of my head thinking that if my parents handled the heat when they were children, then so could I, but there was even more that changed my thought about the rest of the world.

We headed to my aunt’s house. There was no air conditioning in the car so I would have to stick my head out the window of the car if I was to remain cool. When we got there, we unpacked and greeted everyone that was there including my cousins and grandparents. While my parents talked to our family, my brother and I merely stood there. We understood what they were saying, but we could not speak the native language. My first thought of my family was the clothes they were wearing. Unlike our clothes that were neatly ironed, the rest of my family was wearing clothes with holes and tears in them. I did not know why they were wearing that, but it came to my understanding that if it is still wearable and covers you, it is still considered good clothes. As I looked around the house, I quickly drew the conclusion that we were in the dining room, but there was a difference. There was no table to sit at to eat. I quickly asked my mom, “Where is the dining table?” She responded, “We eat on the floor cross-legged. I was stunned by this. How could I eat on the floor? When we left the following morning, I noticed that in the driveway there was no car either. My parents then told me that most people in India do not own cars because they either walk to their destination, meaning miles, or taking the local taxis and buses.

As our vacation progressed into the last few days, I learned many more things about life in India. I learned that television, video games, and cell phones are not found in about ninety nine percent of households. If you need to use a computer, there are some in the local cafes in the city. Children do not have public transportation such as the school buses in the United States to get to their schools. They must walk a couple of miles to the school every day. There is no health or home owner insurance. So if your house is damaged, you have no safety through insurance. If you require surgery or get really sick, it could cost a fortune just to pay off the doctor/hospital bills forcing you to take money out of your income. My mother got really sick in India due to food poisoning and it cost a lot of money to get her medications and make her feel better.

This experience made me recognize how much I appreciate everything I have in America. We have cell phones, televisions, and video games to entertain us. We have computers and cars and dining tables to eat on. We have health and home owner and car insurance to protect us from financial disasters due to accidents, natural disasters, and poor health. We have our parents and buses to take us to school every day with air conditioning so we do not need to worry about the extreme weather conditions. These are just some of the things that we consider necessities, though people in India live without these every day. I learned a lot from my experience of traveling to India which made me appreciate the opportunities I have been given living in the United States. Because of the numerous opportunities that are available here, I am going to take advantage of them so that I will be better prepared to live my future.