IT’S ALL ABOUT THE ‘JUGAAD’ LIFE
“But I’m an international student, it’s twice as hard.”
This line is a personality trait at this point. I hear it everywhere and am guilty of using it more than a few times myself. I am not one of those people who stress about the future too much. I just kind of wing it. Like Michael Scott once said: “Sometimes I’ll start a sentence and I don’t even know where it’s going. I just hope I find it along the way.” That sums up my life. I find most of what I need along the way. I’ve always had goals and dreams I wanted to achieve, just not the game plan to get there, so going with the flow with an eventual set endgame is my game plan for life.
Back home, there is a specific term for it. It’s called ‘jugaad.’ The internet describes it as a flexible approach to problem-solving that uses limited resources in an innovative way.’ I’ve embraced the jugaad life. I truly believe this is an innate Indian experience, quintessentially so. If a person needs to get from Point A to Point D, normally one would go through steps Point B and Point C. But in ‘jugaad,’, you may not have access to those points. So you gotta get creative to reach Point D, and that is true creativity. It’s critical to survive using this in India, where the opportunities are fewer and competition is more. But here, in the U.S., even though there is more competition, there are more than enough opportunities to get by — which is why thousands of students flock here to study. I am one of those thousand students and it’s been eye-opening, to say the least.
The sheer number of possibilities that one is allowed to express and go after is countless. You can do a science background minor with an arts major. This is precisely what makes the U.S. the land of opportunities. While the Indian education system is more set in its way, this flexibility that one is given in America is one of the reasons why I chose to come here. However, while there is much to appreciate, there is also much to be desired. I’m a graduate student at USC Annenberg’s communication management program, which is non-STEM. For the unversed, STEM stands for science, technology, engineering, or mathematics. If your program is non-STEM, you basically get just one year instead of three to get a job sponsorship. As an international student, it is a big risk to take, since we’re spending a lot of time and money with fewer chances of getting a job in our desired industry.
I for one was never truly worried about this. I’d made peace with the fact that I may or may not get a chance to work in the U.S., but as long as I had a fair shot, I would be okay. However, what I didn’t anticipate was the spate of conversations surrounding job security and processing work visas. Nobody will understand the sheer worry and frustration that comes with being a student in the U.S. as another international student. It’s a part of the ‘U.S. international student starter pack.’ While other students speak about the cities that they might have to work in or the companies they want to work for, we international students spend most of our time worrying about getting into any company that is ready to sponsor our work visa. It’s mostly a Debbie Downer to talk shop even at a party, but the constant worry about a work visa creeps into almost every single conversation. The anticipation and stress hang in the air, as we try to dry our worries out by making multiple FaceTime calls home, hoping to settle ourselves in front of our family. Fake it till you make it, isn’t that what they say these days?
While I do hope I can spend less time talking about my future based on the country’s visa process, I truly do hope that despite it all, my ‘jugaad’ skills help me get through it all, irrespective of all the stress and worries. Here’s to us international students, quietly waking up each morning, suppressing our anxieties about the future in a country we left our home for. May the odds be truly in your favor, and I hope you get inspired to pave your way using the ‘jugaad life.’ This one's for you all.