Emily Dickson

Freshmen Khushali Sarnot moved from India recently.

After moving to several different places, freshman Khushali Sarnot is no stranger to new locations.

“I was born in India, then I moved to California. Next, I moved to Missouri, back to India, and this year I am back in Missouri,” Sarnot said.

Because of the time she spent both in America and India, Sarnot can see differences between the two countries.

“The US is different because it is better education wise: you get to choose your classes. In India, everybody takes the same class and you sit in the same class, and some schools don’t have enough space to have everybody to sit in,” Sarnot said.

Sarnot finds living in the United States beneficial for her future plans.

“I am going to go back to India sometime in my life for education, permanently, and it looks good on the college applications if you came from a different country,” Sarnot said.

Moving so often, Sarnot has met many people.

“Some people experience the world when they travel. Experiencing people is what I do. People whiz into people and don’t really feel the regular life living there, and I’m lucky to experience that. I get to meet new people, find new colors in different people. I like to taste the world,” Sarnot said.

Sophomore Ritoma Ganguly is also from India and moved in seventh grade. Ganguly also sees differences between the two countries – but in clothing.

“When I first moved from India I was still wearing pigtails when I came here in seventh grade. I walked into the school and I saw people wearing short shorts and hair down and makeup on, and they looked fancy. I didn’t know that’s how they came to school. It took a while to adjust to wearing clothes like that,” Ganguly said. “I looked different, I spoke different and I was just different as a whole so people for one year. I had barely any friends. It was very difficult for me.”

Besides social and apparel differences, Ganguly was experienced a change in climate.

“When I first saw snowfall, I was in seventh grade science class and people were judging me for that. It was really exciting for me because I was looking at it for the first time. I knew it was snow, but it was the first time I saw snow fall,” she said.

Ganguly has a positive outlook on living in America as well.

“It’s the superpower of the world… Also, I really like Six Flags, which wasn’t in India,” Ganguly said.

Ganguly has advice for those moving to different countries.

“Don’t fall into the stereotypes you hear about because it is not going to be anything like that,” Ganguly said. “Listen to English shows in American accents so you don’t have as much trouble as I did to listen to people. Don’t try to fit in and don’t try to become like them because that’s not going to affect you very much. Go with the flow and you will find friends that actually care for you.”