The question "why did you come to the US?" is perhaps the most annoying question I get. Sure, as an international we get the occasional, do they have cars in your country? Or the, is that in Asia? But I have never hated a question more than the question on why I came here.
Look, I get it. As someone who comes from a place with cheap education and many more resources for students than the US has (like free public transport during the week), it is strange that I came to the place that is almost the opposite of that. An education in the US is expensive. Everything in the US is expensive, and there are little to no resources for students. I get that people find it weird that I gave up my European utopia of peace, love, and understanding, and they want to know why I did it.
But here’s the thing, I don’t have to justify my actions to you. I hate it because this is a question that implies that I was a stupid girl that on a whim decided to come here, and didn’t know what I was getting into. Never mind the careful consideration, the months of applying, and the hundreds of dollars I spend on getting a visa - I must’ve just wandered on a plane and ended up here. But I still get this question every time, and because I am tired of answering it every time, I will now write it down in this article. If you are reading this, you have probably asked me this question, which will also mean I am slightly pissed at you, so you might want to make up for that in the future.
So why did I come here? Well it is a combination of things. First of, I wanted a change of environment. I loved growing up in the Netherlands, but at the same time I felt like the small country was suffocating me. I wanted to go somewhere completely different, a different people in a completely different country. For a while, I considered studying somewhere in Europe, but even Europe felt to small for me. I had to go somewhere completely different from what I grew up in.
So I came to the US. The US was always a dream country to me, I grew up watching television shows from the US, listening to music from the US, everything around me was from the US. The US had become a mystical country that I had seen through every medium, and I wanted nothing more than to be a part of it.
But why did I come to Clark? Well I had a friend in high school who had family in the US, family who lived in Holden, MA. He told me about Clark, I looked it up and liked what I saw, so I applied to Clark, and got in. I know this answer probably disappoints you. Most people are disappointed by this answer, but coming to Clark wasn’t something I saw in a dream or was told by a dying relative, it was just a coincidence that I heard about Clark, and a coincidence that I applied.
After all of this usually comes the last question. "But why did you come here instead of having free education back home?" Yes, I know, I get a free education back home, and that is great. But I like the US education system, I like living in another country, and to me that makes all of this worth it. I know that going here means I am extremely privileged, with a combination of government funding (yes I still get money from my government) and parents who are wealthy enough to be able to afford to send me here. I have been able to do what I really wanted. And yes, this is really what I wanted. So please, the next time you decide to ask any international this, just think: no one asked you to justify why you came here, so why ask us?
(Photo by author)
