The Class of 2021 comprises students from twenty-seven countries. During the spring semester, the photography exhibition "Home Away from Home?" in David Saul Smith Union featured portraits of a number of these students.
The pictures were accompanied by essays about what it’s like to study at Bowdoin when you’re often thousands of miles from home and family.
We're publishing a selection of those photographs with the accompanying essays, and today the spotlight is on Mishal Kazmi ’21, from Pakistan.
I'm from Islamabad, but when I think of home, I think of the beauty of the mountainous north of Pakistan. Even though I'm not from that specific area, my family and I go there for the summer and that's someplace I feel really emotionally connected to my country.
My transition to Bowdoin has been one of ease--mainly because of the solid group of friends I found within the first few days. Because of that, my identity as an international student is not something I'm actively conscious about, and I suppose that's a good thing. But it definitely becomes very different when everyone is applying to summer internships here in the US and I can't avail myself of opportunities like that.
I think there are some things everyone takes for granted about the place they grew up in until they're far away from it. For me, I miss my friends and family back home, and even though I talk to them regularly, I can't ever fully share my experience of being at Bowdoin because they'd have to be present here for that. So, it feels like I'm a part of two very different worlds, and there's little chance they'll ever completely meet.
There's no question about what I miss most about home: it's a nice, large cup of chai.
The exhibition Home Away from Home? was initiated, cocurated, and organized by Shinhee Kang' 18 and Cheng-Chun (Kevin) Yu' 19.