I have been away from home only twice in my entire life. On both occasions I was on a school trip for a week. However, this time I will be away for 2 entire years and both the experiences are going to be completely different. During my school trip, I had a blast with my friends, but I couldn’t wait to be home, and this time, during my first week itself I feel like I have found home at IMI.

I had an interesting first week. I came here with my mother and aunt and I was mesmerised by the beauty of the campus. The first two days were spent in settling into my hostel room. I tried to make my hostel room look like my room at home and I partly succeeded. After my family left for Kolkata, I was left alone to explore this new world at IMI. I met many people and made new friends. These friends have helped me feel comfortable to such an extent that and I haven’t missed home yet. I have created my own small world here where we eat together, study together, play together, laugh together, spend our evenings together, complain about the Dal together, eat between classes together, share food, gossip on the college ground, play volleyball, make fun of each other, take care of each other, eat 16 pizzas as a two-course meal together, and mostly laugh a lot together. Whoever said that hostel life is difficult was right. It surely is difficult, but with friends and faculty members like mine, I feel at home.

I know that life here will get tough, we may have to stay up the whole night to finish assignments, study for exams and we may get into arguments, but all this does not freak me out, as I know that I am going to have the time of my life here at IMI-Bhubaneswar.