Diary of An International Graduate Student

Sincerely, nobody prepares you for a lot of things when you decide to move out of your own country and comfort zone to pursue something better, or what you perceive as good in a country that is thousand of miles away. One of such things is culture shock, it is a lot to handle, well not to generalize, it was for me, it was a lot to handle. It starts manifesting most of the time after the “honeymoon phase” The joy of studying and living the life of your dreams in the almighty United States of America, This phase is full of so much excitement and positive energy. 

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Culture shock comes from the natural contradiction between our accustomed patterns or behaviors, all of a sudden the reality of our differences starts glaring into one’s eyes. Why is everything so different? why do they talk like this? Why do they act like this? are questions I had asked my self so many times, the psychological conflict of trying to maintain my culture or adopt the new culture, what makes it even harder is if one stays in denial, claiming to be perfectly fine about the sudden change when one is not.

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As a graduate student there was that underlined fear of functioning in an unfamiliar social and academic setting without a clear understanding of how to thrive, there was the struggle of always trying harder to understand the rules of the game. There were so many unrealistic expectations I had of graduate school and my perceptions of what life looks like studying abroad which I have now realized are naive and very stereotypical.
What really helped was the fact that I came out of denial and decided to accept that I am okay for feeling that way, I could not trace it back to the source because it started from the little things, but acceptance made the difference.

I have also realized that I am allowed to take one step at a time, I am moving on and still trying to figure all of “This”out. I still sometimes ask myself millions of questions I do not even have answers to, but one sure answer I have is I am defining a career path that I am passionate about, and although I am still unraveling the mysteries of studying abroad as a graduate student, I definitely know it is a means to the greater end.

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Moral of the blog post, living abroad as an international student can be scary at first, graduate school can get overwhelming, even for the most passionate and most seemingly intelligent ones, but remember you are never alone, and it is always a means to a greater end. So! Fighting!

I am Adekunle Adeyinka, a graduate student at Tennessee State University.