The Things I’ll Carry

As a final journal entry, we were asked to make a list of ten questions we’d be bringing home with us. This is my list:

1. How do I tell people about India without exoticizing or romanticizing it?
2. Where is my best support network to continue my reflection and questioning?
3. How much can and should I resist returning to The American Way?
4. Is trying to lead by example ever going to be enough?
5. How do I put lessons learned in India to use in my local communities.
6. How do I avoid being written-off by peers and authority figures as just a Hippie College Student.
7. How do I stay in touch with the Bandhavi girls who are graduating?
8. How much can I handle?
9. Am I compelled to do anything?
10. What is my role in my family now?

These questions are by no means the only ones I have, but they are some of the most persistent and troubling. Any answers I have are in progress, and I anticipate a long process of trial-and-error to come to any concrete conclusions.