“My First day in Canada”

-Aastha Joshi

13 August 2018, as I stepped out of the plane, my heart skipped a beat. I
didn’t know what was going to happen. I took a huge leap and came twelve
thousand kilometers away from my world.

I started my journey as an International student with a mixed feeling of joy
and sadness. Joy, of starting a journey towards realizing my dreams. Sadness,
of leaving my world, my family, my place, my home….

Like many of you, it was an overwhelming experience for me. It was
completely different world with a completely different lifestyle. Want to know
what i felt on the very first hour of my arrival?
I felt lost! I had a few friends who were coming to pick me up at airport and
had helped me in arranging a stay for me for a few days. I reached Vancouver at
around 1 O’clock at night. The streets were engulfed with the sound of silence
that I had never heard before. I asked my friends “Why is this night so
hollow, feels like something is missing” and they jokingly said that it
was my heart that I left at home with my family. The silence of that night, and
many more following nights were mundane to the people around, but they
whispered that I missed something here, I missed my world.
I couldn’t sleep that night, I just gazed at the stars, the mountains visible
from the patio of my friend’s apartment and wondered what my world must be
looking like in the daylight.

The next day I buckled myself up.

My first bus ride with my friend was horrible, I didn’t know anything! I
went to the college washroom and cried because I was so overwhelmed by the
change! Unlike my city, where you tell the bus conductor to stop at the next
bus stop, here I had to pull the yellow string to let the bus driver know that
I have to get down at the next stop and I felt so overwhelmed with so many routes
to cover, s many people around and so less information at hand. To be honest, I
laughed at the nervousness I felt that day, the question “Will I be able
to do all this alone?” was ringing an alarm in my mind the whole week! But
you know what made me sail through?
I looked around. When i reached college, there were so many more like me.
Perplexed, anxious and some even sweating in the cool weather due to
nervousness. As my friends left for their classes, I quickly caught hold of one
of the anxious lot and started on a campus tour. I talked to people around in
my college.
There was one thing common in all of us. You know what?
We were away from home. trying to make another home in a foreign land. We all
were anxious. Some got better within a few hours, some, in a few weeks and
others in a month or two. But the bottom line is we all sail through.

The purpose of writing this article?

Anxiety!

I have been there and so have you!

Even if you feel that you will never be able to rise above all the
information you need to know to survive in this place, look around for once,
you will see many more in the same place as yours.
The silent whispering night will stop talking after a few days. Like others, it
will be just another mundane silent night.
Learn to let go of the thoughts, make plans for the future days, make friends,
talk to your instructors, keep a diary, take notes!

And above everything else, remember to help others. If you see someone
perplexed, go and ask if they need any help. Some people are just too shy to
ask.

Be there for those who need you, just like the ones who were there when you
needed someone the most.

At the end, I will just add, WE ALL SAIL THROUGH! Its new now but very soon it will all be a part of your routine 😉