Dear Future GCIL Brown Girl

|Author: Lorena|

I’ve been thinking about writing this blog since the first week in Bangalore but I never could. I was afraid people wouldn’t understand or that my feelings would be invalidated but now that we’re reaching the end of the programs I feel as though I should. I write this blog for the future GCIL Brown Girl Dear Future GCIl Brown Girl,

I hope your experience with GCIL is nothing like mine. I hope you don’t feel isolated from your culture as I have, I hope you don’t feel as though you have to hide a part of yourself to fit in as I have, I hope you get to hear people say your name the way your parents meant for it to be said at least more than twice. Future GCIL Brown girl I hope you’re not the only brown girl. I hope and pray you have someone to speak your language with at full speed, not having to wonder if you’ll be understood or not, I pray that you do not feel so detached from your culture that towards the end of the program you start to question your worthiness to call yourself brown. I hope that you dig your roots deep and they stay strong and not wither from the drought as mine has begun to do. I hope that when you look up into the crowd of other GCIL students for the blog post, you don’t see that there are no other brown people because the only one is you.

Dear Future GCIL Brown Girl,

I hope your experience is nothing like mine, but similar to mine. I pray and wish you’re not the only brown person but I hope you enjoy your time in India as I have. I hope you create bonds with your fellow classmates as I have, I hope that you share embarrassing first kiss stories with them, that you bond over travelers diarrhea, that you dance the night away with them, that you stay up late playing exploding kittens, that you risk getting food poisoning with them and finally try street food. I hope you find a home in India as I have, and I hope you find a home with your peers without questioning your own roots.

Dear future GCIL Brown girl, I hope you enjoy your time without guilt and I hope that when you look at other GCIL students and you'll see among them at least one other person that looks like you.