“My family travels a lot. I’ve been to over half the states in the US, a bunch of places in Europe, and some places in Asia. It’s hard to think of places I haven’t been.

The first place I grew up in was Montreal, and I lived there until I was about three years old. Then we moved to Toronto, and I spent a significant portion of my life there. It’s just this kind of city that’s monumental [and] has really built who I am. A lot of my personality comes from growing up there. It’s such a diverse city; You get to see a little bit of every part of the world in Toronto. More than half of its population was born in a different country. After Toronto, we moved to New York City. It was at the end of my freshman year, and it wasn’t the easiest move. Imagine living your whole life in one place for almost forever, and then you suddenly move. I had to leave all my friends, and I had to leave everything. But New York was cool. I mean, it’s New York! Lena Dunham once said, “You’re from New York, so you’re just naturally interesting.a�� It was also kind of a culture shock. I feel like everyone in New York was just so different from people in Toronto, from what I was used to. A year later, we moved to Michigan. I like it here. I honestly think the people here are a lot more friendly than they are in New York. But that’s just how New York is, because life is very fast-paced there. Everyone’s always on the move. In Michigan, people just seem to have the time to relax and get to know people.

My family is originally from India, so we’ve been to a bunch of places there, like Mumbai and the Taj Mahal. India’s cool. I think what’s most interesting about the infrastructure in India is that it’s such a diverse country. I mean, we’re all united under the same country, but there’s just so many differences in race, language, culture, religion, and socioeconomic backgrounds. If you go to one of the bigger cities like Mumbai, you really see the difference between those who are really wealthy and those who don’t have much money. You could be walking in the street and see a celebrity in their BMW, and then see little kids begging on the streets at the same time. So it’s just like, the contrast and dichotomy between these two very different backgrounds is intense. You don’t really see that a lot.”

(Senior)