India

My last blog post has me thinking about my roots and something I touched on only briefly was my connection to India. Like I mentioned in the “O Canada” post, my family on my father’s side is Indian and Canadian. His mother is a native Canadian and had two Canadian parents while his dad is of purely Indian descent. Therefore, that makes me a quarter Indian, a quarter Canadian, and a half Mexican. The reason I thought of India however, was not my Indian relatives in Canada, but the fact that it is the one country that I have roots in, that I have not visited. I mentioned that I travel to Canada at least once if not several times a year, and I have been to Mexico for a few extended trips (the first of which was an entire year Oaxaca) over the course of my life. India seems like the final destination to complete the journey.

Since we were born (my siblings and I) it was (and still is) a goal of my father’s to take our family to India. Traveling there would not only allow us to visit our family there, but give us a taste of the “incomparable experience” of Indian life and culture my father and grandparents have always described. I have heard countless stories of buzzing streets packed with cars, people, food vendors, and even goats and boasts of the fluffiest garlic nan known to man, the tastiest ___ appetizers, goat and chicken curry that melts into your tongue, all home cooked to perfection. Of course I am exaggerating, but my dad can tell you a number of different times during which the food his family made was so delicious he literally could not take another bite without throwing up and stayed on the couch the rest of the night, sick from over eating.

I love Indian food (it is easily one of my top 3) and I always enjoy seeing family so when these stories come up, I am filled with excitement, anticipation, and happiness.  One thing that is unique about my Indian background is that although it only makes up a quarter of my racial background, I would argue it is the most influential of the three nationalities I represent (even 4 if you include the United States). Like I mentioned, Indian weddings have been the norm for me for as long as I can remember, but even beyond that, we celebrate Indian holidays, practice customs, and participate in traditions and past times. These include festivals such as Holi and Diwali, traditions such as Rakhi and Tikka, and even the occasional cricket match. I think a big part of this influence is the size of my family and their relative accessibility. Like I mentioned before, my grandfather is one of 13, and that alone creates a huge family. Each of my cousins and uncles and aunts are constantly getting married, having children, and hosting parties, which all become incentives for out family to travel to Canada or wherever the occasion may be, and participate. The accessibility part alludes to the car trip we make to Canada so often. Although it is a rough 12-13 hour trip (one way), it requires no booking of flights or hotels, and so, is very much doable.

O Canada

Canada: a snowy wilderness home most likely to polar bears, hockey players, and icicles. They are said to live in igloos, wear snowshoes, and travel by dogsled between destinations. Every sentence ends with “aye” and grammar is seemingly thrown out the window as neighbor becomes neighbour, color becomes colour, and labor is somehow labour. The currency is not only green, but a brilliant blue, bright red, vibrant purple, and dull brown. Who would ever willingly travel to this ridiculous foreign land?

Well, I’m here to convince you that it’s not as bad as you might think. Not once have I seen a polar bear and the currency is actually more durable than ours and aesthetically pleasing. For those who don’t know, I am actually a quarter Canadian (from my dad’s side) and a Canadian citizen. I travel to Canada to visit my family almost bi-yearly and to several different parts: from the big city of Toronto to the beautiful to the temperate (in the summer) Dickie Lake in Muskoka. While the majority of Canada is absolutely freezing in the winters and covered in ice, it can actually be quite enjoyable throughout the year. When it is winter, there is still plenty to do outdoors. I have actually learned to enjoy skiing (like I mentioned in my last blog post), ice-skating, and even playing a bit of hockey. In the summers, I actually prefer it to Illinois, as the cool temperatures even out and consistently remain in the 60s and 70s throughout the day. Life on the lake is especially enjoyable as any scorching day can be easily turned around with a cool swim.

Canada has actually introduced me to a great number of activities and traditions that I have grown to love such as playing hockey, cricket, skiing, attending Indian weddings, trying home cooked Indian food for the first time, and believe it or not, my first ever major league baseball game. The sports and activities are all great but what is most significant for me is the culture. Despite what one might think, Canada has a large Indian population. My grandfather (who is 100% Indian) is one of thirteen children and so my extended family is absolutely enormous. In fact, when I say I was introduced to Indian weddings, I really mean I was introduced to western weddings and Indian weddings were the norm.

While Canada is known for its extreme cold, harsh winters, and snowy landscapes, it also has an equally good reputation for being peaceful and welcoming to all including immigrants. Canada has great healthcare, a more tolerant society, and is known for being a neutral and generally having a “kind population.” Of course these are just generalizations and it has its faults as well, but like I said, it’s not as bad as you might think. In fact, if you ever have a chance to travel someplace for vacation or break, I would highly recommend visiting.

Skiing

Before you read this, pause for a second and think about the most fun you’ve ever had in a day. Was it hanging out with friends? Visiting a new place or perhaps some family? Maybe it was going to some sporting event or concert. Keep that thought and capture the moment. Picture everyone else around you, sharing that same great experience. Would they consider it the most fun they’ve had in a day? It very well may be, but it could also be far from it. You really can’t know for sure, and that’s what makes it interesting. Now I know what you might be thinking, skiing? That was really the most fun he’s ever had? I can’t say it is because honestly I can remember a lot of good times especially with friends, but it makes my top ten, easy.

It was a cool winter morning when we first hit the slopes and man did we hit them hard. It was me and my sister’s first time skiing and the minute we strapped into our skis, we knew were in for a ride. In the beginning we fell more than anything, but after a few minutes of close instruction, we began to feel a rhythm. 

I’ll be honest, at first, I was completely intimidated by the beginner slope. Keep in mind this wasn’t exactly what I was used to, growing up in Illinois with our lovely “hills.” This was, if anything, a much deserved and overly sized upgrade. In the end, I decided that we hadn’t traveled all this way and rented the gear for nothing, and joined my dad and sister on our first ever ski lift ride. The trip up was actually amazing, gifting us a great view of the snowy wilderness surrounding us and a moment of blissful silence at the very top. Before we knew it, we had arrived at our destination, and we jumped off the lift with surprising ease.

To this day, I can’t decide if my favorite moment of the day was the first or last run. Whenever you try something new, especially something like skiing, there is always the rush of adrenaline and excitement the first trip down. The ski instructor had shown us how to slow down by pointing our skis inwards forming a triangle, and at that moment, I couldn’t think of a more useful piece of information. I flew down the slope at seemingly breakneck speed, slowing down only to turn and prevent myself from falling (which to my dismay didn’t quite work as often as I would have liked). As soon as we finished the run and met at the bottom of the slope I was ready to go again. Throughout the day I became better and better and handling the skis and changes in slope and direction until I was ready to take on the intermediate hill.

Unfortunately, the day had flown by and I happened to try the intermediate hill on my last run. It was both the worst and best decision of the day. Again, in the beginning I was worried I would fall or get stuck on the steepness of the slope, but I underestimated my natural skiing ability, and the softness of the snow cushioning my fall. I flew down the hill again, this time more in control of my skis, but faster I realized, much faster. It was exhilarating and frightening at the same time, but I loved it all the same. I had my falls and lost skis but I wished I had tried the steeper hill earlier in the day. In the end, I had a great time and will forever cherish that day. In fact, you could say it was the most fun I had ever had in a day.

Dribble, Shoot, Score … Run?

As you may know, when it comes to sports, first and foremost, I am a soccer player. I have played the “beautiful game” since before I can remember and not once have I doubted my love for the game. I can still remember our first-ever organized soccer team: “The Sharkys.” At age 4 we were already kicking the ball around, and while it was more like a crowd of organized kids swarming around a small plastic ball, it was soccer nonetheless. My passion for the game didn’t stop there, in fact I would say it grew. I joined the local club team IFC (or Illinois Fútbol Club) when I was eight and from then on playing soccer was a routine.

Some of my fondest memories have come from soccer and to this day I don’t think there’s a thing I’d rather do to pass the time. As I entered middle school and high school, my best friends were, of course, my teammates on the field. Today, my strongest friendships are still with those same players and it seems like nothing has changed. The thrill of scoring the goal, dribbling past a defender, or even training hard at practice is all still real for me, and our success as a team has only bolstered my passion.

Here’s where things start to get tricky. For the first time in my life, junior year, I didn’t play club soccer. There was no problem with the team or with me playing soccer; I simply decided to try something new. Of course my coaches and teammates all tried to persuade me to stay and questioned my decision but at the same time there were people excited to finally see me run for Uni, and Doug was already giving me tips and advice, asking me what events I would run and why.

Neither of my parents ran track or cross-country extremely well and both of my siblings were average runners, but for some reason I was different. I started running cross-country for fun in middle school and it turned out I was one of our fastest runners. After such a good experience in middle school (our team qualified for state every year I ran) I wanted to continue the success and looked forward to running in high school. Unfortunately, soccer season and cross-country season came at the same time and so did track and club soccer, so I ended up giving up on running, seemingly for good. I guess during junior year something changed inside me and out of the blue I decided to run track. Maybe it was the idea of trying something new, doing something I knew I was good at, or even just people encouraging me to finally go back to running, but I carried through with it. I decided that it was a logical decision above everything else since my performance this season would give me a good idea of what it was like, and what I could achieve my senior year of at Uni (if I decided to run again). If I ran just senior year, I figured it would be too late to get anywhere, and so I needed a test run.

Looking back on that year I honestly can’t decide if I made the right decision. I had a generally good experience running for our team, breaking 2:00 in the 800m (an noteworthy achievement for most high school 800m runners), placing 13^th at state, and missing the finals by less than half a second. I was satisfied with my performance and really thought I would run again during senior year until I watched my club play in its home tournament this past spring. I only came to one game: the final. They won, and it was a great game to watch, but as I sat there on the sidelines I realized how much I missed playing with them. It wasn’t even just the games and practices, I realized I missed the late nights in hotel rooms, car trips to other states for tournaments, even the hangouts and movies we saw together. I missed my team.

Fast forward a few months and here we are know. Soon I will arrive at the same predicament: run track for Uni, even break a record and place at state, or play the sport I love for two seasons in a row and join my teammates on the field again.

The First Impression

You walk into school wearing that new pair of shoes you’ve been waiting for weeks to come in the mail. The night before you had checked your porch twice maybe three times until the tan package sealed with an irritating amount of scotch tape arrived at your doorstep. You have already planned the outfit for the next day just to make it a little more special, and when the first person notices them the next day and gives you a compliment or their thoughts on the pick, you feel a little flare inside knowing someone else besides you appreciates your choice and opinion.

But what happens if you had the outfit, had the shoes, and even tried to show them off a little without being to obvious, but no one noticed. Does that mean they weren’t as nice as you thought they were or maybe you got the wrong color? Maybe you feel a little down but in the end it’s your opinion on them that matters, right?

Well, maybe not.

The reason you cared a little about the new shoes and the fact that someone noticing them is nice is centered on the impression you make on people, importantly your physical appearance and how you display yourself to the world around you. I find that one can tell a lot about a person by noticing what they wear, how they carry themselves, and what they like to shop for/purchase. Obviously the differences are clear between a man in an expensive business suit and a guy wearing baggy jeans and a hoodie on a skateboard but besides that, looking at what they wear and what reasons they might have for doing so can be extremely revealing.

The businessman is wearing the suit first and foremost to look elegant and important, because most likely in his line of work, this is the impression he wants to give off. However what we don’t account for is that fact that the suit itself is very useful in carrying pens, business cards, and keeping phones and wallets safely hidden. The suit itself can also be changed depending on the weather suitable for both cooler and warmer climates (to a certain degree). Now take the skater for example. The hoodie and jeans might be the style and brands he reps and that’s just generally the “skater look” but there’s more to it than that. The baggy jeans allow for mobility and comfort when doing tricks and the hoodie is also comfortable and something he can easily leave behind at a skate park by accident and not care about too much if its ripped or torn in the process of skating (if the jeans are torn it isn’t that great a deal either).

When we see a man in a suit or a skater in jeans we automatically assume something about them whether that be his status, class or general social placement when often we don’t consider why they might wear certain things for certain reasons. Of course the majority of men in expensive suits I can assume are more financially well off than the majority of skaters on the streets, but it is something interesting to think about.

(This is really just a collection of random thoughts and it may sound materialistic or superficial but I think beyond the slight exaggeration and storytelling, first impressions do matter a lot. Whether that’s the difference between a new pair of shoes at school or wearing a business vs. baggy jeans an a hoodie suit to an interview, that’s up to you to decide.)