Why India?

Many people have asked me why I'm going to India. My answer, as cheesy as it may sound, is because of the colors. By colors, I don't just mean the  Dictionary.com's definition "the quality of an object or substance with respect to light reflected by the object, usually determined visually by measurement of hue, saturation, and brightness of the reflected light." By colors, I mean diversity.

Coming from a small town in Nebraska, one might guess that I haven't been exposed to much diversity. Is this good or bad? In my opinion, this is VERY bad. So I'm going to India. I'll be studying at the University of Hyderabad in Andhra Pradesh for the Spring Semester 2012. I'll be traveling all around the country and hopefully do some volunteering after the semester in Uttarakhand. 

Safety is what most of my family and friends are worried about with this trip. Going to a developing country, I can understand why... but it's something I need to do. I feel a pull to this place. I'm not going to go on my exceptionally long spill about everywhere in the world having it's own dangers, but it's true. And it's necessary that people go out in the world. Anxiety and fear should never hold us back from experiencing wonderful things.

India is filled with all the extremes: extreme poverty, extreme wealth, extreme heat, extreme cold, extreme spices and food (YUM!), extreme people, extreme history, and extreme future. Everyone is different. Different religions, different homes, different clothes, different families, different diets, different jobs, different education, different, different, different! Everything is so extreme and diverse, I'm guessing I won't know what to do; but this is exactly why I'm going.

 

I'm going to India because of the multitude of colors....

                             ..........and, I also really love elephants. :)