It has been two days since I departed from the Delhi Airport. While I am currently traveling in Europe, I have had plenty of travel time to reflect on my experience in the Himalayas and myself. Before I get into that, I will recap the last few days of our program! After some rewarding downtime in Mussoorie, we traveled 8 hours back to Delhi. Here, we were able to experience what an Indian market is like. To be super honest… not my speed! But it was cool to see. The market was absolutely packed with customers and merchants, who especially targeted our very touristy-looking group. Many of us practiced our bargaining skills as well. 

The next day, we traveled to Agra, where we went on a tour of the Agra Fort (after spending some lovely time with my peers at the hotel pool). I love learning about ancient buildings, the stories behind them, and how they were made, so I really enjoyed this destination. I was anticipating the cultural aspect of the program! After the Fort, we visited a shop that is owned by the generational family that created the beautiful designs on the Taj Mahal. We learned about how each stone is carved and carefully thought out, and the lengthy process of making beautifully designed marble structures. Then, we had dinner at Sheroes, which supports and advocates for acid attack victims in India. It was heart-wrenching but eye-opening to hear the employee’s stories about their attacks. It really made me think about violence against women and the role they have in Indian societies, which I reflected on earlier in the program. This experience, along with some of the small encounters I had with locals, frustrated me as a liberated American woman. It upset me to learn that female children are still not very desired, and there is a significant population difference between males and females due to this. One of the acid attack victims was attacked by her husband because she kept birthing females. This made me very appreciative of growing up and living in a progressive society where women are rapidly gaining respect. It made me want to raise awareness of this issue in India, where there are roughly 300 attacks a year (hence why I am writing about this here). 

The next day was Taj Mahal and travel day! We woke up very early to go to the Taj in order to beat the crowds and scorching weather (I was still sweating like crazy though). It was breathtaking to see one of the seven wonders of the world and get to observe the designs we learned about the day before. Though I was slightly out of it because I was tired and hot, it was still such an incredible experience learning the story of how and why the Taj was built and all the efforts put into it. We then headed back to Delhi for our flight and killed some time at a very Americanized mall – we had Subway for lunch. Unfortunately, I had to leave early since my flight was before everyone else’s, so I said sad goodbyes to my new friends that I now share an unexplainable bond (I will say I am now thankful I was on a different flight after hearing about their horror story of traveling home!).

This experience has been life-changing in a way I did not expect. I came into this trip expecting revelations about life, my values, and so on, but this trip accomplished the opposite. Though I have always thought of myself as a very confident person, it was helpful to put my abilities, strengths, and traits to the test in the environment I was a part of and actually be right in how I perceive myself. I would say I performed well in leadership, as a friend and colleague, and as someone immersed in this program. It was lovely being able to create meaningful relationships with people I probably would not have crossed paths with at Pitt. They allowed me to be myself fully and explore myself and facilitated a positive environment for me to open up fully. My leadership style simply represents my values, strengths, and personality traits. This trip made me so much more able to describe myself as confident, strong, emotionally intelligent, confrontational when needed, able to communicate what I need to say with intent, and most of all, respectable. The negative feedback I received from my instructors was that I could have put more “checks” on our group (basically calling people out in a group setting to be better or improve something). The philosophy behind this is that when you are in a leadership position, not everyone has to like you. While I was initially open to this feedback, I realized that I strongly value the personal relationships I create. If I know my team’s personal values on communication styles or constructive criticism, I believe it is more beneficial to respect their preferences. For example, I gave constructive feedback to people in my group in a private, conversational setting, which worked very well as we were able to discuss the issue and further advance our relationship through a more personal conversation. While this was unseen to my instructors, I believe I am the right amount of confrontational while still being respectful. This realization helped me structure my leadership style because I need to know how and when to balance my beliefs and values with the exterior feedback I receive, and this showed my strong sense of self.