Friends and more

Sometimes, life can be sort of disappointing.

Here at Tulane, we just had elections for the India Association of Tulane University. I wanted to run for a particular position, but I changed to a position that I knew nothing about because someone more hardworking than me would then be running by herself for that position. It was a good move . . . .and I thought I was doing the mature thing . . . until all of my friends got onto the board except for me.

But then I realized: I’m just a freshman. I don’t have to belong to a certain clique or group, because I’m going to meet so many people over the years. I don’t need to limit my friends, because I’d rather have a lot of different friends than a group with whom I always do stuff. And I’ve found the best friends in people outside that group. Here at Tulane, I’ve had the incredible opportunity to bond with people that have similar backgrounds to mine. At UT, that was considered a bad thing, because the groups were almost separated, like people would only hang out with others like them.

As I was sulking a bit about the fact that maybe I just don’t fit perfectly into this group, someone pointed it out to me: that just because people are my race and religion doesn’t mean that they have to be my primary group of friends. I’ve met so many people that aren’t Indian or South Asian, and I rather like hanging out with all of them. I have friends here that are of almost every different type of background. Tulane breeds diversity in a lot of different ways–my boyfriend is Jewish, Italian, and from Portland, Oregon. My best friend is Scotch Irish, her mother is Buddhist, and she’s from Blacksburg, Virginia. How much more different can you get?
In the end, I have to see this as a good thing. I’m not doing something on the board that I don’t really want to do, and people who really want it have got their places. I can still be involved without being on the board . . . . and most importantly, I don’t feel so pressured to fit in with that particular group.

So this is my goodbye to my position on the board of IATU . . . . . all of my friends on the board will certainly see me working hard again next year. Just because I’m Indian doesn’t mean I have to fit into that group.

Essentially, the environment here at Tulane is set up so I have so many options free of the stereotypes that prevail at schools like UT.

I’m free.

<<(IATU Board 2006)