Life

Each and every person in this world is different. Why is that? It's because each child has been influenced by the environment, the culture they live in. Our thinking, our likes, dislikes and even our eating habits are depended on what kind of environment we grew up in. I am one of those.

I grew up in India until I was 13. I had always been a vegetarian my whole life as I was brought up like that. Now it has been three years since I am in this country where almost everyone eats meat and vegetarian food is hardly available. But because of the influence of my family being a vegetarian, I still am a vegetarian & never feel like I am missing anything by not eating meat.

Another important influence on me was the school system we had in our country, where I studied for 8 years of my life.

School

A vegetarian dinner at a Japanese Buddhist temple

Indian curry is real good.

It was not an easy life while in school there, because the school and our parents stressed a lot on studies. We had to work hard to achieve a decent grade. We were taught things that were 2 steps ahead of time according to our age in order to prepare us for the future. That's why I have good studying habits and am used to taking school seriously.

Some other events also made me realize the importance of life. At the age of 13 when I landed here, I was diagnosed with Blood Cancer (Leukemia) within a week of me being here. Because of that I never got a chance to attend school here for 3 years and was studying at home, until now. In the mean time I experienced some things I had never experienced before. I couldn't do a lot of stuff I used to do,