Kimberly Le POst #3

It feels like I have been here for more than just a few days. The culture is so rich and I am trying to take everything in. The students from the college that I met are so sweet. They'll do everything they can to make you feel comfortable. The girls are eager to learn which makes me feel that I am also contributing to their experiences.

I got to know two female students who are very friendly and outgoing. I got a sense of how they live their lives here in India, and what it means to be a girl growing up in India. I learned that about 90% of the girls have arranged marriages, and to my surprise, the girls are pretty much content with whom their parents choose for them. The belief is that the parents will find the best suitable spouse and they trust their parents. Now, I think that's a little nutty because love is such an amazing thing, and falling in love and having that type of feeling is beautiful, wouldn't you want to be in love with someone and spend the rest of your life with them instead of staying with that person just because your parents set you up? Well, something must be right, because the divorce rate in the U.S. is over 55% since I last checked and the couples from India have more than 90% chance of making the relationship last.

Towards early evening, we got to meet a very well respected woman CEO from Coimbatore. She runs a sugar factory here, which is the second largest in the world. I was able to sense that in her younger years, when she was just starting out, she didn't really know what it was she wanted to do, but she knew intuitively that she needed to build up this sugar business. Similar to myself, she was also a realisitc woman knowing the ins and outs of how men are, of how realisitc relationships can be, just overall a very wise woman. Being superwoman is what you have to be, basically, you shouldhavea career, be a wife, and a mother, and you need to do all these things well, but with every decision that you make, comes a cost. She said to choose wisely because to get something, you must always give something up, and it is up to you to decide what is important and what is not.

As the night crept in, I began to understand a little more about myself. I had to blow my nose during this wonderful dinner we had on top of a roof, and to be polite, i excused myself from the table and went towards an opening away from the people. There, i saw night at its best, with the sky scattered lightly with stars, some glistening more than others, and all I wanted to do then and there was look up, and just breathe. When was the last time I actually enjoyed the moment just ofr the sake of enjoying the moment? I wanted to come to India to see how life is here but mostly, to TRY to figure a few things out for myself. One of the male students came to the spot I was at and tried to get me to come back to where everyone was, but I asked him to be quiet and just look up, and just enjoy what comes free in this life. I didn't need anyone looking after me but he felt compelled to watch over me becaue his professor told him too LOL. He laughed when I was gazing and so I asked him, does he ever take time from his busy life to just enjoy what can be universally enjoyed by all, do you ever look at the stars? And he said no, and I said well you can do it now and he did. He said it was beautiful and asked me to come back. I didn't refuse.

The ride back from dinner to the hotel was peaceful. I got a better sense of how I want my life to be and so I felt horrible for being the person that I am back home, although grateful for everything I have, I came to realize that I should be more humble and not so materialistic.

I'm glad to be here and I hope that by the end of my trip, I have a better idea of what this life for me, should be about. I actually have choices in life. Maybe I should be makign better ones.