Firstly, I would like to thank US Department of States, US Embassy, Kathmandu for selecting me as a potential candidate to attend Study of United States Institute (SUSI) – New Media and Journalism. This opportunity and trip to United States not only taught me about Media and Journalism but assisted me to capture some amazing experience of my lifetime. I along with 4 other SUSIs from Nepal left for United States on 21st June, 2015. We were going somewhere on the other side of the world with the time difference of almost 12 hours and even longer travel time of 38 hours. Travelling Kathmandu-Doha-Philadelphia-Seattle, we reached our destination on 22nd June, 2015.
Long tiring journey accompanied by jetlag, everything vanished like it was never in my mind as soon as I landed on the beautiful city of Seattle. It would be generalization but any human being would like to see some familiar faces when they land on a foreign land; well to fulfill that wish, Tom Lang and Nathan Huynh from FIUTS (Foundation for International Understanding Through Students, our organizer) were there to receive us! Finally, we reached our destination; University of Washington. Though it was hectic day, we didn’t miss our chance to have a look around and tried some cuisines out there. I had heard that there is no spice in American food but we did have an alternative for it in AMERICA. With this, my first day in United States went to sleep.
Interacting with people, forming unity in diversity, learning and exploring their cultures, media, businesses and making new friends was always my thing and SUSI didn’t disappoint me on it as well. I wouldn’t miss to highlight that everyone who came across on my SUSI journey were the best beings on the planet. Everyone taught me something different and I would be using in days to come for sure. Fellow delegates from South Asia, the ambassadors (we were assigned with), the amazing organizers FIUTS (Era, Ellen, Tom, Nathan, Kailyn), our teachers from Seattle Globalist (Sarrah, Jessica, Alex) and obviously the host family, which was just the way I wanted it to be. These people were the ones who added seasoning to my trip.
This was the brief summary of my trip. For me, actually, what I learnt or what I stand by after this trip is to keep up with my attitude. The best thing that I learn from USA was the way you see your work and your work is going to make difference, nothing else! All the infrastructures we see or the developments can be built in few months. The only constraint for our development is attitude.  In general, we know everything else apart from our own work. I agree to the fact that USA has a lot of opportunities and said as ‘Land of Opportunities‘ but it’s because of people, moreover people’s attitude nothing else. Here, I am not talking about the attitude of politicians or anyone but about the attitude of general public. If subjected to change the attitude of general people in regards of their works, collaboration and cooperation let’s see what else do we have in Nepal that others have to search for; Natural Resources, Scenic Beauty, A Long History, and Potential for lot of tourism. Aren’t all these opportunities?? Let’s try to see what we have before telling we don’t have anything.
USA is indeed a great inspiration for people who want to work, because of nothing else than positive attitude of people living there, public try to get what they want to they don’t wait for someone to do that. This is what I learned from USA. Learning is there, now it’s about implementing and I am positive in implementing it for me, where I work, where I live and where I learn.
By: Asish Thakur
