The Fate of a
foreign student In 1986, I made my fist biggest trip overseas as an
international student, leaving behind my huge family on a farm somewhere in Rift valley in Kenya. I was just a young girl of 22 as I planted myself in British Columbia, Canada, at least for a while. Then I moved on to Winnipeg, Manitoba where I almost died of frostbite. My feet still twitch when I see or hear the word winter. Other than the Challenging studies, an international student learns and really flourishes on all cross-cultural experiences, or shrivels on personal misadventures, or those of other foreign students companions. All these life experiences serve as an encouragement and a caution. You as a foreigner are involuntarily forced into the art of survival. Here is the true test of survival of the fittest. You are stretched beyond recognition; academically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, financially, and socially. You either find your true identity or you lose it. Before you become earnestly sane, you first have to loose your sanity. You grow up real fast and become your own father and mother. One awful day, a mature woman, stubborn and hardened by the ravages of time as I was, I cried out like a child wanting her mommy. I
missed her and longed for her. I wanted her to take care of me. I desperately needed her counsel. I regretted the
times I had pushed her away or taken her for granted. I could go on no longer. I realized that life is like playing cards. You fall many times, but the last
card determines the game. It is sad to say that some international students do not make it. In literal sense, they sink into depression, burn out, or in the process of trying to beat the system, throw in the wrong card and they lose! Then they are forced to go back home, empty handed. That is for the foreign student
community, a tragedy. For those who make it to graduation, that step is marked as one of the greatest and well earned achievements in life. To be re-united with family and old friends back home, is like a dive into a river after a long, weary foot journey, in a dry season. It is healing, exciting, refreshing, and cleansing. There is nothing sweeter for a foreign student than the reception into his own community. The love and respect they give you is revitalizing. This enables you to shake off the internal burdens accumulated over the years. Simply said, it is wonderful to let yourself be spoiled, and be drenched in the love of all those dearest people you had missed. Then after you are cured and energized, you are compelled to give something back to the community. They expect it from you and may be you owe it to them; you are somehow, their representative.
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