In the few weeks I’ve been back from school, just about everyone has asked me what I’m doing this summer. The conversation usually goes something like this:<\/p>\n
“I’m going to India.”<\/p>\n
“That’s cool! Are you going for a mission trip or just to visit? What will you be doing there?”<\/p>\n
“I got\u00a0a fellowship from U of M to do independent research there.”<\/p>\n
“What will you be researching?”<\/p>\n
“I’m going to be studying urban planning. More specifically I’ll be determining the values motivating the decisions inside of city’s master plans.”<\/p>\n
“That’s awesome! Very interesting!” (I’m always a bit surprised people find this interesting. I always figured this would be something that would be interesting only to me.)<\/p>\n
“Where will you be staying?”<\/p>\n
“I’m going to be in Bangalore and Amritsar mostly. Bangalore is a big city in the south which is sometimes called the silicon valley of India. Amritsar is up north and is a holy city for Sikhism, the Golden Temple sits in the middle of the city.”<\/p>\n
(Usually after this I will be invariably told not to drink the water in India.)<\/p>\n
What led me to pursue a fellowship to go to India began in high school. In my sophomore year I developed a fascination with religion, particularly eastern religions. I read the Tao De Ching, the Bhagavad Gita, a few of the Upanishads, an anthology of the Pali Cannon, the Dhammapada and other texts. Once I came to U of M I was required to take four semesters of a language. I never took Spanish or French, the only two languages offered at my high school and what most people take since they already know some of the language. I had a clean slate, and could pick any language I wanted. Of the forty plus languages I could have picked, I chose Sanskrit.<\/p>\n
It was from Sanskrit class that I heard about the Summer in South Asia Undergraduate Fellowship. My professor sent my class an email encouraging us to apply. I felt timid about applying as a freshman so I didn’t even make an attempt. My friend from the class, Aaruran Chandrasekhar, however, applied and got the fellowship. I went home the summer after my freshman year and scrolled through social media seeing my friends post from their travel abroad. I desperately wanted to be somewhere other than home. I felt like I was missing out on something bigger.<\/p>\n
That summer, I got a job with my local township government. Every summer they hire college kids to be assessing assistants, which meant that I and a partner would measure houses and ask property owners a few questions for the purposes of property taxes. I did this 40 hours a week, for three months. I measured hundreds of single family homes, met a few very unpleasant people, some very nice people, and found that most people were alright. After doing this for a few weeks, I began to realize that my home town looks the way it does for a reason. Someone decided that my town was to be a bedroom community and suburb of the city of Grand Rapids. The new developments\u00a0in the area told me that wasn’t about to change either.<\/p>\n
When I got back on campus in the fall, I knew that I didn’t want to go home again when summer came around. I saw Aaruren present at the SiSA symposium and knew that I wanted to apply for the fellowship and go to India. I started working on my application in November when I knew it wouldn’t be due until March. I thought of doing an internship since the structure might be better for me since I have never been to India and embarked on something this large before but I decided I wanted more of an adventure and chose to do independent research. It took me some time and a few meetings with some professors that I cold emailed to determine\u00a0what I would study but eventually I figured out how to merge my long held interest in political theory with a new found interest in urban planning that stemmed from my time measuring houses. I found an adviser and decided to take\u00a0an intro to urban planning class hoping it would help me get the fellowship and better prepare me for doing my research if I did manage to get it.<\/p>\n
Now I’m a week away from getting on a plane and leaving the US for India. I’m nervous. I’m worried I don’t have all my ducks in a row. Have I done everything I need to in order to be prepared to leave? I knew I wanted to take myself out of my comfort zone and have an adventure so here I am doing just that. Of course it hasn’t felt real yet but it is dawning on me more as it approaches. But at least I won’t be spending the summer at home, and I know what to say when someone asks me what I’ll be doing this summer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In the few weeks I’ve been back from school, just about everyone has asked me what I’m doing this summer. The conversation usually goes something like this: “I’m going to India.” “That’s cool! Are you going for a mission trip or just to visit? What will you be doing there?” “I got\u00a0a fellowship from U of M to do independent research there.” “What will you be researching?” “I’m going to be studying urban planning. More specifically I’ll be determining the…<\/p>\n