Summa Cum Laude

When I first put my foot in America, I was living a life full of uncertainty. I left my home, family, and friends for a better future. I had to give up all the comforts and familiarity in the last 18 years of my life, and embraced a different life. For strangest reasons, I was in pain and sorrow. I had an impression I did not belong here. All I cared was being graduated from college with a satisfactory grade point average, and left this country for good. I had problems adapting with the western culture and I felt scared when thought of living with this for 3 more years. I remembered I had to record all lectures with a voice recorder, and repeated the recorder dozens of times to understand what the professor was saying. The hardest experience I had was feeling like nobody when  I was trying to share my point of view with my group members and was ignored. Everything seemed out of my league. I did not feel quite fulfilled when I first came here. I never stood out from the crowd.  I felt lonely and insignificant. I missed my home.

Although my beginning experience was not the best, but today I realized everything I went through in the last 3 years made so much sense to me. I was in a room full of graduates celebrating their final day of college. When I was listening to the chorus and musician playing, "Angels In the Architecture", I somehow related it with my life. I started with a bumpy road, but I can see my future with clarity since I grew so much in the last couple of years. I became self sufficient, independent and made loyal friends. I found more love and respect than I ever had when I was back home. I was one of the few graduates who received the Summa Cum Laude, the highest academic distinctions. Now I have bigger goals to accomplish, and I understood that the greatest way to cure loneliness is to serve others and give unconditional love. I understood that I accomplished an important mission in my life which I had been longing for since I was a kid. I just graduated from college, found a wonderful place to work, know wide range of people from all walks of life and have inspiring goals.

I can understand if you cannot follow what point I am trying to make. The only message I want to give is that I am very grateful. I am in a state of abundance. In December 18, 2011, I completed my mission successfully. Now my job is to decide a bigger and empowering goals which will provide me brighter future.