The Afghan Scholars Initiative

My first day at Hotchkiss School

When I left home for USA, I was a bit nervous about leaving home for the first time, going to a new environment, meeting new people and experiencing a new and totally different culture, but after coming to Hotchkiss, I found the people very friendly and well behaved, which gave me the sense of being at home. At the beginning of school, I had some difficulties with socializing and food especially when I looked at the students who only used vegetables for their dinner or lunch, I was surprised because I never used vegetables alone for dinner or lunch. One other interesting moment I experienced during my first days of school was the contra dance. All the students gathered in basketball field to perform the dance, so I went with them too. I was the only one standing outside the dance platform, because it was very new for me; not only contra dance but I did not have any past experience in any kind of dances. One of my friends asked me to join the dance with him, Finally I was made to join the dance, which was quite interesting in performing the dance.

Celebration of Eid-ul-Fitr in honor of Muslim students

It was the finishing days of Ramadan, and I was thinking of the coming Eid festival and the moments I used to spend with my family, relatives and friends during Eid. I did not think of that sort of celebration in Hotchkiss before, the international programs coordinator Mr. David Thompson suggested we celebrate Eid. In the morning of that day, we five Muslim students were taken to the mosque for performing Eid Namaz, and after that we went to a traditional party for celebrating Eid with some other Muslim communities.

That evening we celebrated Eid with all the other students within a party during dinner; we had a special dining hall Menu consisting of some Muslim traditional foods; we played some Afghan, Arabic and Indian songs, and we had some people dressed in eastern cloths.

In order to make the festival more interesting, one of us suggested performing a Palestinian dance. During that dance I was feeling much happier; because we had some of our faculty members take part in that dance. I am very grateful to be at Hotchkiss, because beside academic and extracurricular facilities it also provides the opportunity to introduce our culture and tradition while also learning about others‘culture.

If I could tell about one of my most amazing extracurricular activities at Gould Academy, it would be skiing. Before meeting Juliana Montgomery who made the A.S.I. documentary in Afghanistan, I never thought I would be able to see other people skiing-let alone myself doing it. When I met Juliana in Kabul, she asked me if I wanted to ski at Gould. For a moment, I was at an awe of hearing about such an opportunity. Ever since that day, I became so thrilled about skiing that I would pay for internet café to watch skiing videos on Youtube. However, having never skied before, I was unsure if I would be able to learn.  When I shared my excitement with my mom, she used to tell me not to try “crazy stuff” because who would take care of me if I broke a bone. I totally understood her concerns, but I also wanted to take my chances and benefit from this opportunity.

During the registration day at Gould last September, I was given a long list of sports to choose from. I did not know most of those sports, but I made sure I chose skiing and soccer. I was equally excited for soccer as I was for skiing. For the first time, I was going to play soccer on the grass unlike in Afghanistan where I played on the dirt. After a few days of playing soccer at Gould, I discovered that I was not going to be able to continue due to an old back injury. It was a huge disappointment. I had just started to make friends on my soccer team. Not only I missed soccer but I also became hesitant about my ability to ski. I passed the fall with one leg in my classes the other in different doctors’ offices to fix my back. Although none of the treatments were helpful, I decided to ski.

My first day on the mountain at the Sunday River is an unforgettable experience. In the beginning I was nervous because I thought I would be the only beginner. However, when I saw a couple of other kids in my situation, I became a little relieved. We went on a flat spot for the first few days with a special trainer who taught us how to make turns, stop, speed up or slow down. I remember when I first got on my skies I could not stand unlike other beginners. I held on to my partner and listened to the coach as he explained the techniques. After the coach’s demonstration, everyone took turn to do the same thing. Although some kids laughed at each other, but my turns would make the whole team laugh because my upper body was turning west while my legs were going east. I fell, struggled and tolerated the chuckle of my friends and finally learnt to ski.

Despite falls and injuries, I kept trying and improving. Within three months, I went from learning how to properly stand on my skies to making 180 turns and doing jumps. I started on the flat spot where I could barely stop myself once I kept going to doing black diamond trails. In the beginning I was not allowed to ski with Ski & Ride, the basic and easiest team, but by the end of the season I improved so much that my coaches wanted me to compete this year. In addition, skiing became one of my most favorite sports after soccer.

I am very lucky to be at Gould Academy. I have had lots of opportunities to explore both in academic areas and in extracurricular activities. After I learnt and enjoyed skiing, I decided to try new sports. I knew that stepping outside my comfort zone could be risky and challenging but it could also be very fun. That is why I decided to try more sports from my list that were completely unknown to me. I played baseball last spring, and I am snowboarding now.