My Journey

Some students have a background or story that is so central to their identity that they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.


As the Chinese saying goes, “he who stays near vermilion gets stained red; he who stays near ink gets stained black.” If one were to take that literally, I would practically be a rainbow. It is widely held that the environment that one grows up in plays an integral role in shaping a person. However, for me, the situation is quite different. For the first twelve years of my life, remembering my home address was troublesome business; I lacked a permanent address, moving from Sudan to Sri Lanka to Sierra Leone. In my head, telephone numbers, street names, roads and zip codes blended into a mishmash of data.

There I was: sitting on my bed playing FIFA 2002, completely oblivious to the fact that the course of my life was about to change. Suddenly, I heard my door creak open. It was my father.

“I was offered a job in Sudan,” he said.

“What is that?” I replied, bewildered.

“It’s a country,” he told me. “We will be moving there soon.”

Everything went by very fast the next few months, and, soon, I found myself in a completely different world. The people were different; the food was different and even the trees were different!

I still remember. The house was painted a warm shade of yellow. Everything felt welcoming -- from the gleaming...

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