tructure for that. The other thing was that I wanted to experience a new place, ,living away from home, and being on my own. I figured that this would give me good exposure and help me grow as a person. I always knew that it was going to be tough, especially at the beginning, and sitting in that plane I realized how true I was. But then I gathered myself and decided to be positive. After all, it was no use pondering about "what-if". Rather, I decided to just hang in there and make the most out of the whole thing. On this relatively positive note, I set foot in America. There I was, starting off a new chapter of my life in the land of opportunity, America. It was the first time I had been to this country, but it was like every thing had imagined it to be. I must admit, for the first weeks I was in complete awe of the place. But, I was out of that phase, pretty soon and began settling down in my new surroundings. Though I did not have any major problems in getting adjusted to the different environment and lifestyle, I did have my share of "learning experiences".By the end of the first week of classes, I made an important decision. I would make sure that all my children's names were not longer than four alphabets and had at most one vowel. The reason for this was brutal decimation of my own name, at the hands of every American. Initially, I tried to correct people but then realized that it was no use. The accents were just too different, and I developed the habit of responding to all versions of "Chintan". Well, my difficulties didn't end there. Thanks to my strong Indian accent and a tendency to speak pretty fast, I did have a lot of trouble in getting my point across. But this was just some times, and after a few weeks, it was not a problem anymore (or just on rare occasions.) Besides these relatively minor hiccups, things went along pretty smoothly for me.In college, time seems to fly. Juggling between homework submissions, midterm ...
