by Olivia Lowe

Reflecting on what has been an incredible six weeks I thought I would start off by sharing a couple of my favourite moments. 

1. Pongal celebrations – we were lucky enough to take part in Pongal celebrations at a local school, a festival that celebrates the harvest season. It was a morning filled with laughter, smiles and dancing. It was such a unique experience to get an insight into the local traditions, and to be able to share it with the local school children made it that bit more special. 
2. School visit – one of the schools we visited also really stood out to me. We went to Akshaya Patra in the morning where they prepare meals to distribute to schools in order to help encourage them to attend school. We arrived at one of the schools at lunchtime that receive the meals that Akshaya Patra prepares and we helped to distribute the food. Afterwards, we interacted with the kids who were so energetic and eager to get to know us. We finished off the visit by performing the Bollywood dance that we had been learning and then one of their talented students also performed a dance for us.

As with all the highlights, there are always some challenges. The biggest challenge that I found was the intensity of the trip. Each day was packed full of incredible experiences, we were often up early in the morning and then didn’t get back until later in the evening. With little downtime, I sometimes found it difficult to process and take in everything that we were experiencing. I found that I really learnt the importance of making the most of any downtime we had in order to process and reflect on what we were doing so that I would be ready to make the most out of each day.

This experience has taught me so much not just about India but also so much more about myself and those around me. I am now much more aware of my goals and aspirations for the future and where my values lie. I went into this experience hoping for more clarity on what sort of career path I wanted to take and I have definitely come out with a much better idea. The passionate speakers we were fortunate enough to listen to across the six weeks have made me realise how important it is for me to keep working towards the things that I am most passionate about in order to live a fulfilling life. Overall, it was such an eye-opening experience and I will forever be so immensely grateful to have been a part of it.