When I first joined the Student Union, I quickly discovered that most of my fellow bloggers, and indeed most of our readers, were students from Africa, Asia and the Middle East, not from Western Europe like me, and certainly not from England. At first I thought this might be a problem.
Do I really deserve my place here, being from a relatively comfortable background and part of a culture that many think closely resembles America? Will my experiences and anecdotes, troubles and triumphs, be as valuable or even as interesting as those of somebody who is coming to America from a place where everything from the language to the food is unfamiliar? How can I relate to people from all over the world, having only really experienced the European way of life?
And as I considered that last question, I began to think that actually maybe I’m not the only one who is nervous about, essentially, making friends in America.
Making friends was my biggest worry when I started university in England, and it was my biggest worry again when I came to America. Except this time, I wouldn’t be one among many students starting school for the first time. I would be the outsider; the new kid starting two years after everyone else had already settled in, the English boy who dresses a bit differently and has a funny accent. But worst of all, I would be alone, without any friends or family nearby to go and talk to or just to relax with – no way to escape from the pressure of trying to assimilate and make friends.
So you can begin to understand the mental state I had somehow put myself in by the time I arrived here at the University of Maryland.
You might be thinking that I don’t know the meaning of the word ‘daunting,’ being a Brit and sharing some familiar cultural customs with America as we do. I know that in many ways I have it easier than other international students. After all, I didn’t have to worry about my language skills, and many people in England even complain about how much our culture has been Americanized - we have brands like Hollister, we have snapback baseball caps, and we have a desire to be constantly entertained.
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