Today we took an hour bus ride to the Dehradun train station. The bus ride was smooth even on the windy roads of Mussoorie, but the train ride was even better. Once we arrived at the train station, we had a little while to wait until the air conditioning turned on inside the train. Instead of just sitting around and looking I my phone, I took the opportunity to get some extra snacks and a drink for the ride. I found my favorite snack is Masala Munch. They’re like Cheetos, but instead of cheese flavor, it’s meat masala flavor. I got a big bag of these and then went back to the group that was waiting outside on the platform. Luckily when it was time to board, we didn’t have to walk too far, and we could just easily hop on. Shortly after getting on, we were on our way. The first few hours flew by as I was sleeping or watching movies while eating masala munch of course. As the train made multiple stops over the six to seven hours, it began to fill up. At this point, I was getting a little anxious because I knew the New Delhi train station was going to be very hectic.

As we pulled in, I looked out of the window and thought it wouldn’t be that bad. I thought this because it didn’t seem like too many people were waiting on the platform. However, this idea was very wrong as we got caught in major crowds, especially on the small escalators. We split up once or twice but quickly found each other again once we realized. Overall, the group worked effectively knowing that the faster we got on the bus the faster we got to sleep at the hotel. Now looking back at the situation, I had an overlapping lesson and/or trait that I have learned about myself.

This is staying quieter in anxiety-provoking situations and focusing on taking care of myself and others. At the train station, I did this by constantly checking my shoulder to look out for whoever was behind me, while ensuring that I was keeping up with the person in front of me. On the trek, I did this when the group would take a longer break and I would go ahead to find water or a campsite. I vividly remember doing this a few times in the earlier days of the trek. I didn’t do it as much later for a few reasons. Firstly, we had to let the guides find water the day of the snow because of some hiccups on the way and secondly, we had more definite campsites on the way down.

To conclude, I feel that I will continue to get overlapping traits from real-life situations and the trek throughout my everyday life. Also, I just want to thank everyone at the Hanifl Centre, Woodstock School, and anyone else who had a part in my month in India. I cannot wait to see the Taj Mahal, but I really can wait to get home and tell everyone my stories.