Capture the Moment

Welcome to the story of my life.

I've decided to show you guys my story through snapshots

that I took along the way.

Um so I was born in India on November 10th

2002 and We grew up in, I grew up in

Hyderabad with my mom, dad and my little sister.

Um this is a picture of me with my mom

and sister, this is one with my dad.

Um there's also one with my schoolmates in India and

this was pretty much my life until the age of

13 and I don't think there was any question about

my future being in India because we always thought that

since it was our home, we would um I would

grow up there and just eventually settled down there.

However, um when I was around 13, my dad moved

dissolved to America and I was kind of where the

second half my story began.

Um the first year was a lot of fun.

We got to travel a lot because I didn't have

to go to school just yet.

Um So here's some pictures of me going to Virginia

Houston, um the mountains and Washington.

And it was, it was a weird time because it

was difficult to be away from the only home I

ever knew, but it was also fun to be a

kid to explore and to spend time with my family

that I probably didn't get before.

And then um the challenge began when I started school.

So I had a six month gap between starting schools

from when I moved to India and it was my

first year in high um middle school.

I was in eighth grade, but it was my first

year in an american middle school.

Um So I think that was particularly challenging because kids

my age when they see people of different cultures that

they don't understand, things get awkward and they get strange

and it definitely caused me to um change and uh,

I think find a different version of myself that I

was okay with, showing to people who weren't familiar with

me. So, um, for example, kids in school, when I

would talk about my culture or when I would talk,

you know, they wouldn't understand my accent, they would think

it was strange that I was bringing Rice as lunch

to school every day.

Um, so these things I think really made me aware

of who I was as an individual and at that

age, I think to hear these comments all the time,

it really made me stop portraying that side of me.

And it was, it was weird for a while because

I didn't know how to act around people.

Um, But then I went back home for the summer

after 8th grade and I had a vision of India

after I moved thinking it was only home I ever

had and there was nothing, there was never going to

be another home for me.

But when I went back to India, it just made

me realize that I don't think I had a home

back there because it had been so long since I

lived there and you know, my family was in America.

So I don't think there was any, any kind of

home left for me.

So it was, it was strange going back and feeling

out of place in a place where you've grown up

for most of your life.

Um, so that, that also gave me a different perspective

and but in the end I think it wasn't a

happy ending, but I did find new friends and new

people who, who accepted me and who tried to understand

me even though I was different from a lot of

them. And I think surrounding myself with the right people,

um, definitely made me come out of my shell more

and I started to go back to the version I

used to like being before I I had to change

um to make it easier to adjust, but it was

it this isn't an ending to my story, but it's

certainly a start of happier one.

And yeah, that's pretty much the end.

I hope you enjoyed looking at the pictures um and

snapshots that were important to me along my journey.

So thank you.

Capture the Moment

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