Student Perspective: My Experience as an International Student

Being an international student proves to be challenging in all aspects. Living on your own, supporting yourself financially as well as emotionally, along with maintaining good grades take a lot of determined effort on your part. Moving away from my family and the home country was a huge step for me. I’ve never lived away from my home; so, I was thrilled to explore a whole new country for the first time. In this excitement, I didn’t fully realize the responsibility that I was taking up with the move. I was at the airport waving goodbye to my brother when it finally hit me that I might not be able to see him and the rest of my family for the next two years. Although I did have some consolation about the fact that I was going to stay with my sister in Canada, and I won’t be entirely on my own. Still, it wasn’t a walk in the park for me.

Everything from public transit to the education system was entirely different from what I was used to in my home country. I was finding it hard to adjust to all these changes. For the first few weeks, physical and mental exhaustion loomed over me. It seemed like a daunting task to even go out for a walk in the unfamiliar streets with the freezing temperatures. However, when I started college, that spark to achieve something and be successful came back to me. I began meeting people from different communities and backgrounds around the campus. Most of them were international students like me, who had left everything behind to become independent by gaining knowledge and skills to grow in their careers. They were all just like me, trying to fit in with the local community. Hearing them talk about their jobs, and how they were working hard to pay their tuition as well as striving to make a living, motivated me to re-shift the focus on my career.

I have been taught since my childhood to not only be diligent but consistent as well. This has been my motto ever since. My exploring nature has always encouraged me to delve into taking up extracurricular activities and making full use of all the available resources. That is why I am always keen on participating in clubs and events. Unfortunately, I didn’t get the opportunity to be a part of my college clubs due to the pandemic outbreak in the very first semester of my school year. With everything going online, there wasn’t any room for social interaction, but I didn’t give up on achieving what I came here for. I decided to be resilient in this time of adversity. Finding and utilizing all possible resources that I could find online to help me guide in my studies was the first step. One of the best tools that I came across was Connect, which benefitted me in various ways. I started understanding the learning material a lot better than I’d have done in a campus lecture. I’m grateful that I invested in something valuable.

Financial management is another thing that international students are concerned about. It is burdensome for students like me to figure out where to spend their money and how much. It is especially true when you’re still trying to find a job. It was stressful enough to find part-time work because of the legal restrictions on international students for not being able to work more than 20 hours per week. Add a world pandemic to that and the odds of me getting a job were slim to none. I was using up all my savings to account for the living expenses and the financial strain was rising with the day. After almost three months of frantically searching up jobs, sending tons of resumes, I finally got an interview and got hired. Now, I can proudly say that I see myself in those international students I met on campus. I’ve lived their story.

Canada has certainly taught me many lessons. I’ve grown from the girl who relied on her family to make her decisions to someone who not only makes wise decisions for herself but help others in doing so as well. Everyone has to face hurdles in their life but the only thing that eventually matters is to never give up.

I'm a Marketing student who loves meeting new people and helping them in whichever way I can. Besides working part-time as a Sales Associate, I spend most of my time reading novels and writing journals.