my hopeful imagination
Where Am I?
I am at a place and time where I am building up my identity from near scratch. Everyday I absorb external stimuli, and the thoughts that reverberate in my mind in response build and shape my identity. Perhaps I will find another couple blocks and some new plaster during my journey in India.
I am at a place where I am comfortable and proud of who I am. I am constantly meeting new people and find myself submerged in all kinds of environments. As I learn, acculturate, and adapt to these new situations, I welcome new qualities as part of my identity and become more self-aware of who I am. I am at an age where I am flexible and highly malleable – provided with the cushion of family and community to fall back on and possessing relatively few responsibilities of my own – and I can thus more fully explore the many opportunities I am given and look beyond the confines that we tend to place ourselves in.
I am aware and grateful of the opportunities that I have. I am curious and constantly angered just by how imperfect and unequal the world is.
What am I leaving behind?
I am leaving behind many things. I am always leaving things behind. I always feel as if I am leaving behind less material, physical things than I am personal relationships. That is because physical things often find replacement, but each and every human relationship that I have is unique and different from the other.
A couple days ago, I left behind my new friends from camp down at the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University. As an international boarding student at Andover, I am accustomed to leaving friends behind – sometimes for indefinite lengths of time. But I also know that even if I cannot see those friends, our relationships will continue to survive in some form, whether that’s through Snapchat and Facebook or just in my mind and heart. True friendship lasts – as proven both in my experience and the stretch of my hopeful imagination.
--Rhaime