After all the hopes from NID and IIT Hyderabad, where I got waitlisted, I’ve now decided to start my journey at MIT ID Indore – Master's in Interaction Design. I’m consoling myself by saying the MIT ID is located at the centre of India, so that I can explore the country easily. I’ve kept my expectations very low.

I took my first step into the university on June 30th, I guess. I was honestly impressed with the campus - green, lush, and very clean, even though it’s in a remote place.

I didn’t expect the campus to be this good, and I’m loving it. I met many new faces. Initially, I was very quiet, and there was a language barrier too, which sometimes made me feel left out. But that didn’t really happen here. Everyone switched to English if I was there, and that meant a lot.

The first two weeks on campus were amazing, and I loved them. I stuck to a group initially, where there were no conversations or friends outside the group.

Later, bad days started creeping in. I literally had a few traumatic days. Then came the exhibition day, the last day of our first course and that changed everything.

On that day, I was helping everyone, looking at each other’s work, and talking to everyone. People came to me, talked to me, and I felt so good. I really loved that day. It felt amazing, and that counts as one of the best days on campus.

I made many friends; literally, the entire master’s batch is my friends. But after a few weeks, people who stuck with the person initially started to part ways, and that’s when problems arose.

Misunderstandings happened, and those weeks were hard for everyone. The same applied to me. I don’t really stand for groupism; I’ve always wanted to be with everyone, not just a specific set of people. There’s a saying:

“If you want to stay with everyone, you end up staying with no one.”

That feels real, I guess. I can relate to it :)

Time went on with lots of academic assignments. Amid all this chaos, I joined E-Cell, where we help students become entrepreneurs. I have a nice team there, and we have had lots of events and fun together. The image below is one of the bonding activities we did the whole night; we enjoyed every bit of it. That counts as another best day on this campus.

Then came the design project phase, and everyone’s schedule got hectic working on their projects. (People are still working on them while I’m writing this blog.)

In the last course, I had a lot of emotional downs. Both my mental and physical health went down. I was thinking too much, worrying too much, and it affected me badly.

Thanks to my friends who were there for me at that time; they really pulled me through.

Despite all the ups and downs, I feel very blessed to be here and to have the friends I have. I literally love every one of them.

This is one of the best rollercoaster rides I’m currently on. Even with some lows, I freaking love them. And I’ve already started missing the people who left for Diwali holidays.

I’m the last one from the master’s batch to leave the campus. The last day here feels so empty; it’s a one-of-a-kind experience. It feels unreal, yet kind of nice. Sending off all my friends and being the last to leave is a strange mix of emotions. It’s sad to see everyone go and to miss them, but at least leaving last means no FOMO.

I learned many lessons in these few months, not just academics, but a lot of life experiences, too. According to me, there’s no good day or bad day; there’s only experience. I’m here to experience everything emotional, academic, social, whatever comes next.

It took me these many days and months to write this blog. I had a lot to write, but ended up with only one. But maybe that’s the beauty of it, it’s all raw and real.

I actually shed tears while writing this.

See you all (at least one?) in the next blog.

Happy Diwali