For those of you who actually read my blog, you might notice that I haven’t written in a while. Quite a long while, considering I used to write at least twice a week, if not more. But the reason is - I’ve finished my exams at LSE and spent a week traveling around the UK and moving into my room in Geneva, Switzerland! My mother came to visit me, and I showed her around London, while inside I was saying goodbye to a city I had grown to deeply love throughout the past year. I felt not yet ready to be uprooted yet again, to embark on yet another whirlwind adventure, to build a temporary life again in yet another new city. But life doesn’t stop according to our wishes, and so I moved on to another new experience.
When I arrived in Switzerland, I had the opportunity to take a long, winding train ride through the picturesque countryside, replete with verdant farmland and the Alps, chilly and ominous in the distant horizon. We reached Zermatt, a town nestled at the foot of some of the most majestic snow-capped mountains of the country. From there, we took a rickety cable car ride to a frighteningly high point of 13,000 feet - Europe’s highest mountain lift. As we stepped out onto a platform and into the fresh, chilly air, I found myself blinded by the dazzling white mountain peaks we were surrounded by, the most magnificent being the Matterhorn peak. This was true grandeur, and the moment remains fresh in my mind.
So why do I tell you this story? Because on the way back home, as I watched the mountains recede into the distance and basked in the sun on the peaceful train ride, I couldn’t stop thinking about how freaking lucky I was. How many people have the chance to travel the world and to see some of the most amazing sights in the world by the age of 20? This year, I took in the regal air of London, the lovely coastlines of Greece, the cheeriness of Dublin, the literary atmosphere of Scotland, and the international legal experience of the Hague. How many students have such amazing opportunities?
Stepping out into the dazzling view of the Alps - like every other exciting opportunity I’ve had recently - has made me more aware of my status in the world. I’ve enjoyed every moment, but I’ve never stopped appreciating how incredibly lucky I am to have these experiences. I’m well aware that I’m insanely privileged, and that the majority of the world doesn’t have these opportunities - or even anything close. And, I feel that it’s completely unfair for me to be this lucky, while so many others suffer from human rights violations, poverty, or conflict.
What’s ironic is that having the world’s beauty and grandeur thrust in my face gives me a great desire to work towards ensuring that others have these opportunities too. But seeing extreme poverty, somehow, hasn’t given me this drive in the past. I was born in India and have visited several times. I’ve unquestionably seen poverty and underdevelopment - in the rickshaw drivers, the domestic servants and their poor families, the sad state of government education, the utter lack of sanitation and the mounds of trash at every street corner, the pervasive corruption. I’ve seen it, but to be completely honest - seeing poverty and social problems firsthand scared me. It didn’t motivate me to act, but rather made me want to escape. It didn’t inspire me, but made me feel dejected, and powerless. Strangely, having some of the best opportunities to travel, to enjoy, and to experience life - have motivated me more, making me even more aware of my privilege, and the unfairness of it all.
Perhaps it’s because I didn’t work directly with or alongside the underprivileged in India, or perhaps it’s because I was younger and hadn’t reflected on what I saw around me. Perhaps being so close to poverty is just so frightening that I retreated rather than became inspired. Either way, it’s ironic; students and Peace Corps volunteers often cite fieldwork experience in developing countries as the most formative experiences of their life which truly caused them to become dedicated to this work. Maybe for me it’ll be the opposite - and maybe I’ll cite my experiences with the world’s grandeur and beauty as my inspiration to contribute to the incredible change happening around us, so necessary and yet so exciting.
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