I’m going to India thanks to a friend. We’ve been friends since middle school and have travelled a lot together, always looking for fun opportunities to get out of the country. He forwarded me the application email sometime in October but it wasn’t until January that I actually opened it.

I applied to many different organizations and NGOs hoping that one might email me back. I figured if I secured an internship before submitting my application I’d have a better chance of being accepted into the program as a freshman. Of the 10 or so that I applied to, it was Cecoedecon in Jaipur that emailed me back. The only one that I truly wanted to go to, and it was the one I heard back, accepting me into their organization. Cecoedecon is an NGO dedicated to providing econoimic security in the Rajasthan area as well as grass roots uplifting of marginalized communities through sustainability and advocacy work at national and international levels. They have a very “If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. If you teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime” mentality.

As I finish my last finals right now, I barely have any time to think about India. I’ve completed my checklist, received my E-Visa, and done everything I could possibly think of before I leave. I was so focused on finishing my finals off on a high note that I haven’t had time to completely process everything. As the first one of us to leave I’m both excited and nervous, excited for this new opportunity that will definitely be like nothing else I have experienced before, but nervous for the same reason. I have lived in other countries before but never in one whose culture is so different from anything I’ve ever known, where the language is not one I know or understand, where the expected daily high is 104 degrees fahrenheit, and where I will be living with people I have never met before nor know what they look like. For better or worse, I think this will be a life changing opportunity that will change my life forever.