Ever since I bought my car, Dallas has become a very magical city to me. Lots of people give me weird stares when I say I actually started liking the city. Because apparently the general population doesn't like Dallas. People live here because they were born and brought up here or the job was too good to resist. But nobody moves from another place specifically to Dallas if they have another choice.
While it is true that I came here because I didn't have a choice, and it is true I hated it till I got the car, I did have a change of heart ever since. Dallas is an amazing place for a food junkie like me who loves trying out different cuisines for affordable rates. Cost of living is cheap, everything is accessible by car, the city is very well planned. And the medical center, best place to do science!!!! :) So yeah, I love my job, I love the city.
Sometimes its easy to forget that its been a year and a half since I set foot in my own country. Especially for somebody like me, my parents had come to visit me for summer.
But the weight of the whole situation hit me when I was browsing facebook and saw that some of my old school friends had been to my home town recently and had a blast! It was so cool to see pics of them after so many years and realize none of them has really changed. It brings back a truck load of memories, looking at them posing at school, in front of our old classrooms where we stood 6 years ago in our olive green uniform, in front of the ice cream shop we were banned from going to as school kids, at the grounds where we held all our sports events, and all around the city that I have grown up in and have loved always.
Singapore was still alright, it was just a 3 hour flight away. I know some of my friends who went to different parts of India to study who had a much longer commute back home by train. So Singapore was cool, a perfect balance of science (not as good as I would like it to be) and closeness to home.
Sometimes I wonder, if in the pursuit for the perfect science career, I wandered too far away from home... I am madly in love with my job, yes. But I am never around for reunions with family and friends. All I get to do is see pictures on facebook and hear about how I was missed.
Did I do the right thing choosing science over family and friends? Did I do the right thing choosing food for thought rather than food for heart?
I've been away from my country... far away for far too long
1 comment:
Very happy to see that you have started liking Dallas. In life it is very hard to go away from the people and the places we love. But as we grow up it is inevitable. We have to give up something in order to gain something much higher. As time goes by everything changes. The number of people at the reunions dwindle and we are left with the memories of the nice times we had there. If you had stayed closer to home and done whatever was available, at the back of your mind you would have always felt bad about not taking a chance and going out to achieve something more important.
As far as family reunions are considered, we will have them again when you visit here.
Very proud that you did not give up upon your goal in spite of all the difficulties you had to face in the beginning. Still prouder to see how you have managed to streamline your life and time in doing different things rather than just being in the lab. You are on the right track. Keep going ahead do not look back!
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