Member-only story
What shocked me wasn’t what I expected.
I Moved From India to the US and Learned How Freedom Can Quietly Make You Lonely
America amazed me, confused me, and forever changed me.
When I first arrived in the United States, I was filled with the same hopeful astonishment that most Indians have when chasing the “American Dream.”
After being officially accepted for my master’s program at a prestigious university, packing my bags with masala Maggi, wrapping myself in my parents’ advice, and a fantasy of falling in love with the land of liberty, I was ready to begin my journey.
Instead, I think my welcome was far more complicated than I expected. I walked into a land filled with contradictions.
A country that both left me astounded with its charity and frightened by its excess. Some of what I saw and experienced felt like I had stepped directly into a science fiction film.
Others things felt broken beyond recognition. Each shock felt like not just cultural, it was as if I had existential shocks.
Fast forward to present day, at 30, back in India, those first impressions have not left me. They have stayed with me even after I left the hysterical mix of culture shock and found myself in…
