Moving to a different country as a master's student

Since I turned 18, I always wanted to get out of the house and live independently. Being come from an orthodox family who never sent their daughter out of house(not even to hostel), I understand the struggle of finally being away from family. it's a freedom that comes with a price of not being lazy anymore. 

I have begun my master's in Information Technology at Northwestern University, one of the most reputed universities in the world. It is a great news and I was super excited but here comes the thing. Once you reach United States from India(or any country away from home), you get to do things by yourself. NO ONE WILL BE THERE TO HELP YOU LIKE YOUR PARENTS DID. 

You enter a new place with new people and new problems. You get to do everything by yourself. From buying what you need to managing your expenses, you will see the difference in everything.

First two weeks are living hell since you know none and if you are an introvert finding trouble to talk to people, you're done. These two weeks are the most important for you to communicate and learn the place and people around you. Knowing more stores which offer discount, buses which go to your university, places to visit for your "ME TIME", everything is to be figured out at this time only. Though it was hell, it was great too! I had hardest lessons to learn but the thing was, learning is no fun without a challenge. 

 

I had my challenges too like "getting ghosted by the friend you came to US with", "not understanding course load and assignment procedures", "not knowing the routes in the campus to navigate to classes", etc. I honestly had no friends too haha for the first 3 months but here's the thing. With these on your plate, you learn a lot to be independent. I have a whole community of people near my house but we live like we don't know each other. Everyone forms groups in the first few days and communication with others is just not existing anymore. 

The other major shit crap load you have is "not finding proper internships since this is pretty hard market". You will come here with a lot of hopes and dreams and guess what, it is a really hard process to figure out what field you want to work at and what kind of roles you want to intern at. I found my passion in december which is pretty late I'd say but now, I'm just going through the process of getting intense cold rejections from many employers haha. Not because I'm not smart but it's because it's pretty bad in the market outside. 

All this together, I'm doing wonderful. I got a perfect house to come back home to. I have beautiful dreams and ideas I believe I can make into reality, I have an excellent future coming ahead. 

Nothing should stop us from having dreams even if the times are pretty poor. We need to stand on our legs and make sure that we don't get away from the stable position. Problems are like waves in the ocean. We need to stand still when the wave comes or it takes us away. 

Now I can do everything by myself. I am having a wonderful time taking things easy and focusing on my career. I hope you have your time wonderful too. If you're a master's student who also navigated from your country to another country for education, I wish you have a bright future with challenge that make you feel alive.