Strangers Become my Saviors!

Sometimes, I tend to be very childish-a simple nice thing can make me so happy, and again a very silly bad thing can make be down! I won't say I live without a long term 'big' plan for my life, but I usually settle for a simpler plan. I strive for the best, try my heart out, but I certainly know how to accept the failure, no matter how unpleasant it is.

University life isn't the bed of roses, and it comes with full of choices-either to make it work out good for you, or opt for something which may not be always good for you. You learn to take decisions of your own, and stand on your own feet. "University life is the most crucial part and the fastest learning period in your life..." says a professor of Mathematics, Dr. Tenali, answering to students' enquiries of life being so stressful. You grow both physically, and intellectually within four years. You come in as someone, and go away with entirely different person, an officially professional.

Peer pressures, academic requirements, professors' expectations of you as an "over-achiever" et al makes the life extremely challenging, to say the least. It is nearly impossible to grapple all those challenges simply by living in your cocoon-the comfort zone! You got to go an extra miles, and keep nothing as granted. I am a very shy person, and probably the quietest student in every class. I feel shy to approach someone, and ask for the help. I do really have to overcome my fear and be more open. "In the US, nobody will approach you and render helping hands, if you don't speak up and approach them first..." are the words of a director whom I happened to meet during the Fulbright Official Dinner at Druk Hotel in Thimphu. After having gotten selected for the scholarship following the declaration of BHSEC (class 12), in 2007, I got invited to the Official Dinner hosted by U.S Embassy officials who happened to be the Hamphrey Scholarship interviewers, and Fulbright representatives, then. I felt very honored!

Those words really struck me as I came here and deal with the ground realities. Somehow now, I have developed some courage, and appreciated his words. On the scale of 1 to 10, I would, however, rate just 6. I still need to conquer my fear, and shy. They contribute more and more to the stress-level. Working in a team, or group creates synergy, thus yielding higher quality of work. I knew that fact, but always face difficult being in a group, specially when people around me are complete strangers.

But this semester being my second last one, I tried my best to conquer my fear and able to approach people. In fact, I am happy that I have been able to make more friends this semester, and now I feel more confident to make my last semester even more significant. I have a few people deserving of a mention, and whom I owe a heartfelt thank. As I said earlier, I am a quiet guy in the class, and even worse, I become extremely quiet in the classes other than my major. Philosophy of Science course, tortured me enough. The fact that I was the only international student in that class, made even worse. I somehow manage to pass the midterms and assignments, but my biggest fear was the final exam.

Just a couple of hours ahead of the exam, I was having the lunch of Pasta in the cafe with two friends of mine. A girl (whom I later recognized as a girl in the philosophy class) walks up to me, and says "We are having a review session for the exam. Do you wanna join?" Delighted, I promptly replied "Wow awesome. Where is it gonna be?" She said that it was gonna be in the first floor of the library, and left to grab her lunch. I met her in the library, and she went over almost everything that she thought would be in the exams with me. I felt short of words to thank her. In a similar incident, but this time me approaching a girl in my Biomath class. I hesitantly asked her "if we could work together for the finals", to which she responded in affirmation. We exchanged our cell phone numbers. The next day, I was to meet her in the library. I went there, and once again felt short to thank her for her generous help. She had literally done 90% percent of the problems, photo-copied and kept readied to hand over to me. What can I say, I am truly truly thankful to them.

They are my saviors!!!