My biggest culture shock was realizing some people get to plan their whole lives
Everyone talks about culture shock in terms of food, accents, or social norms. Mine was something else entirely.
When I started my graduate school in North America, I met students who had their whole lives mapped out. Not just the next semester or even the next few years. I mean 5-year plans, 10-year plans, 20-year plans, retirement plans. They talked about the future like it was something stable, something they were allowed to trust.
I was honestly shocked.
I was finishing my graduate work here in the summer of 2006. I still remember leaving my lab one day in July like it was any other normal day but I only returned back in August for one afternoon, defended my thesis in an empty room with just my committee members there, and that was it. I did not get the chance to say goodbye to my friends. I would not see some of them again for years.
That experience stayed with me. Some people grow up planning their future like it is a given. Others grow up knowing everything can change overnight.
We have the right to dream about our future. To plan for a peaceful, prosperous future without war constantly interrupting life.
Enough with these wars. Survival is not enough. We deserve a future too.