I came to this part of India about five months ago.
On my first day on the job, I was as nervous as little boy on his first day of school. The butterflies in my stomach were not there because I was starting a job in new city but because I was scared of whether people (students) would accept me. My irrational fear was because I looked different, I spoke with an accent and I just felt strange in this new state. But the moment I walked into the classroom, students looked at me. To my relief, they were all smiling.
I know it sounds silly to give so much importance to a smile. Trust me when I say this, we take smiles for granted. A smile is the first step in acceptance. The genuine smiles that I saw on my colleagues’ and students' faces made me feel a little more welcome and a lot less anxious.
The weeks went by and I received amazing assignments and batches to work on. My colleagues were extremely supportive and understanding of my strengths and weaknesses, although I must say it took some of them a while to pronounce my name correctly!
Over time I started to get to know more people in the building and to be honest, it felt wonderful. Yes, there were awkward moments of silence – meeting a person from a different culture can put you in a spot where you are thinking of not saying anything that might offend the other person. It’s like an auto correct function in your brain, only much faster and less reliable.
I love our intellectual discussions from politics to sports to mathematics. I always call one of my colleagues my Kerala History teacher and the other my little ray of sunshine.
I knew I had come to the right place only because I was surrounded by the right people who had accepted me for who I was. These were the people who made me feel at home away from home.
Acceptance is the first step!
On my first day on the job, I was as nervous as little boy on his first day of school. The butterflies in my stomach were not there because I was starting a job in new city but because I was scared of whether people (students) would accept me. My irrational fear was because I looked different, I spoke with an accent and I just felt strange in this new state. But the moment I walked into the classroom, students looked at me. To my relief, they were all smiling.
I know it sounds silly to give so much importance to a smile. Trust me when I say this, we take smiles for granted. A smile is the first step in acceptance. The genuine smiles that I saw on my colleagues’ and students' faces made me feel a little more welcome and a lot less anxious.
The weeks went by and I received amazing assignments and batches to work on. My colleagues were extremely supportive and understanding of my strengths and weaknesses, although I must say it took some of them a while to pronounce my name correctly!
Over time I started to get to know more people in the building and to be honest, it felt wonderful. Yes, there were awkward moments of silence – meeting a person from a different culture can put you in a spot where you are thinking of not saying anything that might offend the other person. It’s like an auto correct function in your brain, only much faster and less reliable.
I love our intellectual discussions from politics to sports to mathematics. I always call one of my colleagues my Kerala History teacher and the other my little ray of sunshine.
I knew I had come to the right place only because I was surrounded by the right people who had accepted me for who I was. These were the people who made me feel at home away from home.
Acceptance is the first step!
👏👏👏👏
ReplyDeleteits a treat to read..... :) :) :)
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