The Warmth of Other Suns

"I was leaving the South

To fling myself into the unknown…

I was taking a part of the South

To transplant in alien soil,

To see if it could grow differently,

If it could drink of new and cool rains,

Bend in strange winds,

Respond to the warmth of other suns

And, perhaps, to bloom"

Richard Wright refers in this poem to his own migration from the American South to Chicago in the 1920s. Despite the circumstances, geography and time separating his migration from mine, the poem resonated with me and reminded me of my own journey north.

Popayán, Colombia

I was born and raised in Popayán, a small city in Colombia with colonial-style architecture. I love Colombia but I always knew I wanted to study in the US. What I didn’t know was how different the college application processes are in the US and Colombia. In Colombia, students start thinking about what schools they want to apply to in around April or May of their senior year (graduation is in June), there are no essays or recommendation letters, sports and extracurriculars play no role in the admissions process, and most schools are not nearly as competitive as in the US.

Almost nobody from my school or from my city goes to school in the US, and I personally didn't know anyone who had done undergrad in the US or who knew how the application process worked. During the fall of my senior year, I found myself frantically studying for the SAT, SAT subjects and TOEFL, explaining to my teachers who had never written college letters of recommendation why I needed them to please write one for me, trying to complete the endless essays and questionnaires most colleges required and generally stumbling my way through the US application process. I got so stressed my hair started to fall out but the idea of achieving something I had wanted for so long kept me going.

Fast forward to freshman fall, I found myself living a completely different life from the one I knew. I was not fully aware of it at the time - more than anything, I was excited to start college, meet new people and live new experiences, but moving to Sioux Falls, South Dakota at 16 was probably the most radical change I have ever gone through. I found myself away from everyone and everything that I knew. As the weeks passed, I was overwhelmed by the demanding classes (it is an understatement to say that none of my classes in Colombia were nearly as challenging), the dining hall food so different from the homey, wholesome meals my mom used to cook at home, the nostalgia from being half a world away from my family, the completely different culture I encountered and, before I knew it, the brutal South Dakota winter - it snowed from October to May!

Augustana University in Sioux Falls, SD

It was not an easy journey and, as it often happens, it didn't go as planned, but I am happy with the direction my life took. Seven years later, I feel more in my element in New York City than I ever felt back home. A part of me will always be very Colombian - I love lulo juice (lulo, to quote the internet, is "an exotic fruit with a citrus flavor that is popular in Colombia"), I am closer to my mom than virtually all of my American friends, I use Celsius and the metric system and I still prefer soccer over football and can't really understand America's obsession with the Super Bowl. But it wasn't until I moved to the US that I felt like I was able to mature, become independent and fully develop my identity.

I now live and work in the city I always dreamed of as a little girl, I went from not even knowing how to do laundry or pay my phone bill to becoming an independent woman, I became vegetarian (fairly uncommon in meat-loving Colombia), I started meditating and doing yoga (also not very popular back home), I was able to join classes I had always wanted to take but were never available in Popayán, I met people with backgrounds and experiences different from mine, who speak different languages and practice different religions and eat different foods, and I embraced the diversity and the myriad of opportunities present in the US. My journey north allowed me to learn things and live experiences and meet people and go to places I never thought I would. Seven years later, I have felt the warmth of this foreign sun.

New York City