The eye opener

Chapter 1

I spent 18 years of my life in a country, my country where everyone else looked like me, where I felt a deep sense of belonging knowing that I was part of a community, a part of something bigger than myself. Life to me seemed almost perfect, peaceful and beautiful. As a child, I played with my friends in the sand, climbed trees with the boys and played the cook with the girls. We were without worries, we believed we were safe and that mum and dad would always be there for us. I grew up learning to accept others, espousing the idea that we are all the same and deserve to be treated with respect and equality. My childhood memories keep me believing that if once upon a time we didn't care what colour of skin you had,  because all we were interested in was being around good people and sharing great moments together then we still have a shot at love, unity and peace. As kids we didn't see colour because no individual is born a racist, racism is taught and so also love can be taught. When I was little I would hear that sometimes people could treat you differently because of your skin colour but it never occured to me that it could actually be true, for all I knew it was one of those stories they told us to scare us. In my little mind I figured; why hate someone who has no say in what colour of skin they ended up with? It made no sense so I convinced myself it wasn't true, now in hindsight I realize how wrong I was.
When I got an opportunity to study outside my country, I was excited but at the same time I was so scared. It was going to be my first time studying far away from my parents and I didnt know what to expect or if I could survive being without them. At the same time I was excited to see what life outside my comfort zone looked like. Mum told me that I was stepping out into new challenges, new opportunities and new experiences all bundled up in one. She said it was the commencement of my own life, the birth of  my own path and now in retrospect I see what she meant. After so much preparation, I was finally ready to go. Oh! how naive I was expecting to be awarded a smile in return for every smile I was eager to accord. My heart was broken and my dreams shattered when I realized that my perception about human race was erred. Leaving my comfort zone wasn't the easiest of things to do. All my life I had been around similar people, I knew my way around, I knew how to communicate with others, I knew what my rights were, I was in my land, my home, I belonged and most importantly I was a citizen. Now I was leaving my place of comfort and familiarity to an unknown place, a place where I will be referred to as an immigrant, a place of uncertainties, a new and entirely different environment with a culture and lifestyle totally divergent from what I had been taught my whole life. I was headed to a different continent miles away from where I had called home for the past 18 years, a country with people of various ideologies probably different from mine, an entirely unique gastronomy which I would have to learn to enjoy and a language I have never spoken in my life. I was in for everything new.