The Real Truth Revealed of International Students
You must have heard of many things about being an international student. That people are full of discrimination. They won’t accept you. Be alert to your surrounding. And this is the best “ Go and find a person of the same country”. And this is the reason why I hated moving out of my country. All the rubbish things they subconsciously planted in my mind. As the first time leaving my family behind. All out in a new country, a new city. I did not have any contacts in my city.
All alone I started my journey to the country of dreams. And to my surprise, people here are really kind and generous. I did not at all felt I am so far away from my country, my family. Well, there were obviously many problems that I had to face like the roommate I got from my consultancy was a pot smoker. And I hated all this sort of thing. So, my first milestone was to find a new home with a new roommate. All these are small problems that everyone has to face.
The most basic problem that all International Students face are:
1) Every International student has a hard to adjust to climate and time change
Well, most international students come from different time zone. The weather and time take a toll on us. It is hard to adjust but after some time your body will adapt to the weather as well as time. I was very sensitive to cold and the freezing snow was the hardest thing for me to adjust to. This is something that will happen with time only. So, you need to give it some time. And How much time that will totally depend on each individual.
2) Every International student needs to cope-up with studies as well as the education system.
The education system in the USA is very different from my home country. So It took me some time to adjust to time table and classes and everything. At the starting of my education, I use to enter into many different classes, and halfway along with the class, I used to realize that I am in the wrong classroom. It took me 2 weeks to get around with everything.
3) Getting familiar with the accent and making my self comfortable
Well, whenever I used to introduce myself the room in the air suddenly used to drop. You can see all those judgemental eyes looking at you as if you are an alien. Well, It took me some time to make an image of myself and get myself familiar with everyone around me. So take your time. You have complete neutral grounds for you to set up. It is in your hands how you are going to make your impression and personality. So keep this in mind and when you go for your studies remember you can easily make a new great impression.
4) Getting used to with the Food
Thank God, for the modernization and fast food industries. I had very fewer problems with getting used to food. Major of times I used to live on Pizza, burger, fries, and hot dogs among other things. So if you love fast food there is no issue for you to adapt to the food because the taste will be the same as in your country.
5) Remember the roads back to my place.
This is something that every human who changes the city has to face (Unless you are Sherlock Holmes) So what I used to do was when I was in the metro, I used to visualize the route till my home and in few days I remembered everything from the metro to my house. You can try that too. But to be honest it was nice actually getting lost in a new city. It was like to find yourself, you need to lose yourself.
6) Getting my OPT Job
Well, This is the only thing I hated being an international student. OPT Jobs and 90 days of unemployment were the worst nightmares as an international student. First, there was a limit within which I had to find a job and then the job must be in my field. Of course, this process takes time and in the end, you can also end up with a job or not. The best way to find an OPT Job is by hiring online portals. They give us a guaranteed 7–10 interviews. If you can’t get a job even after getting 7–10 interviews, maybe someone needs to retrospect themself. The best portal that I found was United OPT.
7) Looking for an H1B sponsor
This is also a very tough thing as your future is completely in someone else’s hands. But finding an employer who can sponsor your H1B visa is like finding God. Hard but not impossible. So keep your head up and keep looking for different employers you will obviously find one.
Well these are the major problems that I faced as an International Student
If you are reading till here. I love you.
Have a nice day and thank you for taking the time to read my story.