Healer {z.m}

02

Dream.

It is a simple word with a complicated meaning behind it. I was just a girl with good grades who had strict working parents. I was mostly living alone while my parents were off for work. The atmosphere around me was silent and still.

I had a lot of friends and at the same time, didn't have any friends. I liked to be a lonely kid but was always surrounded by different people and as a result, I started being claustrophobic.

Once when a pandemic hit for three fucking years, I was caged in my room for two year straight with little to no company. It had both pros and cons.

I made zero effort to get in contact with my old friends and preferred music and Netflix (which I got after much persuasion from my cousin). But I used to think lot of times about my future and goals. I started strategizing my plans and even aimed higher.

No one in my family had ever dared to step out of our city let alone country. I never really had an inspiration whom I looked up to for fulfilling my rich dreams.

So, now when I am currently standing in the midst of LaGuardia Airport in New York, I cannot help but think of myself as a role model. I wanted someone to desperately pat my back and say that they were proud of how far I've come.

I turn around and see that Tanisha was already looking at me with all our trolleys surrounding her. She gives me a big bright smile and a giggle. She runs towards me and embraces me in a tight hug and pat my back.

"We made it. Oh my god Emma, we are here!! " Tanisha says rubbing my back.

Both of us pull back and we both are blinking back tears. This had been a dream for us from the moment we came to talk about making each other proud. All those endless afternoon calls about discussing the smallest of things about New York and all those nights where we had fights with parents telling us that we can't make it- this is our moment.

Both of us let out a hearty laugh. I just wanted to scream out of happiness and say a big fuck-you to all those people who always thought that I couldn't have made it.

After having a delightful moment and also getting lost trying to figure out a way out of the airport, we finally hail a taxi to take us to the NYU college dorm.

The tall skyscrapers were taking my breath away. I have always lived in a quiet atmosphere for my whole life. But now when I am here, it felt like I was whisked away and planted here in the midst of this clamouring loud city.

People are in a hurry not even stopping for a millisecond. There was traffic and sitting inside the cab made me sweat even in 26 degrees Celsius.
After few long busy minutes, we hop out of the taxi with our trolleys stranded on the pavement.

This felt so scary. I look around and I realize that we didn't know anyone here. We didn't know where the college was even though the GPS said that we had reached the destination. People were bustling away with no one even sparing a look at us.

Finally, Tanisha gets a hold of a girl who looked the same age as us. With her eyes glued to her phone, she mumbles that if we make a round turn we would be in front of the NYU campus.

These people are like the polar opposites from the people we faced in Kolkata.

Dragging two trolleys and with our jackets tied around our waist, we make a round turn and soon we see the purple flags with the logo of NYU clearly written.

The College of my Dreams was standing big in front of my eyes. This is it.

I give out a loud chuckle to no one in particular. I want to jump and scream but since people were minding their own business, it would've been really inappropriate.