In today’s column I would like to talk about privilege.
Now, privilege is something that is always been discussed,
and more often recently. You turn on social
media—Twitter, Instagram, etc.—and you see talk
left, right and center about privilege. The privilege
that this group has or that group has. But, in this column,
I am not here to talk about the privilege of different
groups—I’ll leave it your interpretation which
groups these could be—but about the privilege that
I, Trishna, hold.
First and foremost, is the privilege I have as an
American citizen. My parents weren’t born here, but
they became citizens when they moved here. And
when my sister and I were born, several years later,
we became citizens too. And being a citizen means I
have the ability to live a worry-free life. I mean, as far
as all of that goes. I still have worries, believe me. My
grey hair is proof of that. And yes, I’m 25 and I have
grey hair—if that’s not proof of my nature to constantly
worry and stress, I don’t know what is. Anyways,
by being a citizen it means that I can travel without
much hassle, I can become an elected official if I so
choose (which I probably never would because that’s
too much stress) and I can vote. The last of which is
the biggest privilege. Having the opportunity to make
my voice heard and vote for candidates who support
the same causes as I do and who believe the same
way about the issues as I do, is just the most amazing
thing. And, speaking of, I really hope all of you
exercised your right to vote. If you see this on November
6, then get out there if you haven’t! And if you
see this on November 7, well, Election Day is over so
if you didn’t then you can do it next time. But that’s
enough political talk, let’s move on.
As I said in the previous paragraph, being a citizen
makes it easier for me to travel around the world
practically hassle free. And that’s a good thing because
my family is quite international. As mentioned,
my parents were not born in the USA. My mom was
born and raised in India, and then moved here at 24
when she got married. OK, slight tangent here to say
that my mom was out of her house and married at 24
and I’m 25, still at home (because I want to be and my
parents want me to
be), and the thought
of getting married
now is alien to me. I
want to get married,
I’m sure that’s been
clear through my
previous columns,
but I am SO NOT
ready yet. I still have
a year/year and a half
of Master’s classes
to get through. Your
girl is getting her first
Master’s in December
and a second one
in the near future, so
marriage isn’t really
on the cards yet. But
I’m going off track.
So, as I was saying,
my mom lived in
India and then came
here. My dad, who is
Indian, was born in
Africa, moved to Lon don
at age five or six,
did all his schooling
there, came to Amer ica
as a young adult and has been here ever since.
As a result, all of my mom’s immediate family is in
India and all of my dad’s immediate family (except
his brother’s family) is in London. So, being a citizen
means I can travel to those countries, with no issues,
and see my aunts, uncles, cousins (and grandparents,
when they were still with us). And that’s so good
because I am very close to my family; particularly
my immediate family. Don’t get me wrong, I’m close
to my extended family as well (second-cousins and
stuff), but it’s just that I have this very close, unbreakable,
bond with my dad and mom’s siblings and their
kids. So much so to the point that I don’t even consider
my first cousins as cousins, I consider them my
siblings and treat them as such.
Speaking of travelling, another privilege I have is
that I had the opportunity to live in Europe for five
years. My dad’s job transferred us there when I was
13 and I lived there until I was 18. Now, ignoring the
school aspect (which wasn’t that great of an experience),
every other part of our stay was just incredible.
Not only did I get to go to London and India more of ten,
I also got to visit parts of the world I never imagined
I would. At such a young age I saw France, Italy,
Switzerland, Germany, Czech Republic, Norway and
more. And, within those countries, I got to see so
many different cities. In our school, we got a week or
two weeks off every six weeks and, every time one of
these holidays rolled around, we’d pack up our bags
and head to a different country. And I cannot express
how thankful or grateful I am for those times and opportunities.
And this doesn’t even include all of the
other within America travel we have done. I mean I’ve
been to Disney World six times and Disneyland Paris
once. And, if you need an inkling of why that is such
a privilege and big deal, then read my tidbits from
last week.
I also have privilege thanks to my uncle. Let me
explain. My uncle is an accountant in India and many
of his clients are Bollywood celebrities. Now, I am
not much into Bollywood anymore but when I was
younger I LOVED it. And I loved so many Bollywood
celebrities. And, due to my uncle’s job and connections,
every time we visited India, I was able to meet
at least one of whichever celebrity I liked at that time.
And these meetings weren’t just ‘hello’, autograph,
‘goodbye’—they were proper ones with conversations.
Although I was always too star-struck to talk,
but that’s beside the point. Furthermore, because my
family are the only immediate ones who live outside
of India, we tend to be really spoiled when we actually
do go. Which, I say without hesitation, is another
aspect of privilege that I hold.
There are many other types of privilege I have, but
I am making the choice to not go into them in this column.
So that’s all for today. Thanks for reading and
I’ll see you next week!
Oh yeah, I used the following website to help me
find the privileges of being a citizen because I didn’t
know them off the top of my head: https://www.uscis.
gov/sites/default/files/files/article/chapter2.pdf
Photo Credits: En.Parisinfo.com, Geology.com
