Memories of your student life.....

[al Furqaan]

Hah...so many tales of rejection! You are all novices at being shot down, and probably couldn't hold a candle to my apprentice, let alone me. Its not for nothing that my best friend had once dubbed me "the female repellent!"

Ahh the life of a solitary soldier...

[Mav]

Originally Posted by Kabir
Since school er prem kahini is the current theme, I'll go with the flow.

Grade 9 in the new school, me and my childhood friend couldn't just get over our chemistry teacher. Since it was a new school, they had a ton of teachers from A-levels, our chemistry teacher was one of them. She was thin built, nerdish, beautiful eyes and lips, and long black hair. Both myself and my friend realized we didnt have any chance in this, so we continued to talk about her for months after that. I believe she is now happily married as she deserves.

, I think we all had atleast one such guilty crush on our teachers in school , haha.

[BengaliPagol]

Once the police came to our school because they arrested a teacher who was a convicted pedophile.

[Ajfar]

Shobar dekhi failure story. Kew score korte parlen na? Eid innings nai?

[deshimon]

Originally Posted by Ajfar
Shobar dekhi failure story. Kew score korte parlen na? Eid innings nai?

Failure story shohojei vula jai na, r tai likhte gelei failure story mone chole ashe.

[bujhee kom]

I went to Viqaroon nesa Noon for grade I and II in 77, 78..and we had a big tree _ Boto Brikkho - Bot Gaach - Banyan Tree...the tree was the home of a Jiin - Jinnie....And one day the Jinn's wife fell from the tree and we all ran to help her and put her back on the tree.

[MohammedC]

^^^ BK how do you sleep with all those crazy stories and ideas in your head. You sure are a mental case.

[M.H.Rubel]

Originally Posted by MohammedC
^^^ BK how do you sleep with all those crazy stories and ideas in your head. You sure are a mental case.

Dear Mo C vai don't u know that Javed vai don't sleep at night !!!!

[Maysun]

Originally Posted by Ajfar
Shobar dekhi failure story. Kew score korte parlen na? Eid innings nai?

I did. Got into a relationship with one of the talked about girl in high school. Had the advantage over others, we went for the same tuition unlike others and were friends. It lasted for almost two years, actually broke up on the eve of our two year anniversary.

[Maysun]

In my last year at high school, I was the captain of the "Diamond house" football team. The year before our seniors had won the football championship and I felt honored to have been chosen the captain for the defending champions. We had a good team and a pretty strong bench but were the first to be eliminated. The opponent scored in the last minute

But those guys went on to win the championship undefeated. And we were the only one who lost by a single goal margin. Others struggled.

[Ajfar]

I was a band geek in high school. The best part was the band camps. Zeeshan bhai will probably come at me with some once at band camp joke. Got too to some pretty nice places. My favorite was performing at Giant Stadium. I was thinking about joining the pep band when I was at the university. Could have traveled all over the country with the football and basketball team but decided not to.

[Kabir]

Originally Posted by Ajfar
Shobar dekhi failure story. Kew score korte parlen na? Eid innings nai?

Ase ase. I met my better half, now my wife for five years, back in 2002 in school. She was a friend of a friend. As some of you may know, she's not Bangladeshi, but she actually hung out with all the Bangladeshi girls...hence her ability to pick up Bangla so fast. In fact, she speaks fluent Bangla now and can translate most words from her language to Bangla by herself!

Funny thing is, we went to the same uni for undergrad, and went on to get our grad from the same uni as well. In our dining space, we framed our four certificates to form an odd pattern...we get a few smiles from our guests from time to time.

Now...this thread is about memories of student life...so i guess i went a bit off topic. My student life wasn't an easy one. As an international student who completed undergrad and grad by flipping burgers, having up to four or five part time jobs at the same time, sleeping four hours a day for years, and working more than forty hours a week with full time courses...lets just say that i have a different appreciation for life. The one thing i did miss out on is the life of a youth in uni...dont really recall having the time to enjoy my uni days. I spent many nights sleeping in the uni dance floor as no one used to be there in the weekends. Some nights i used to be the only person in the building...well, almost. I can remember thise days vividly when i had to think a few times before spending a dollar for a coffee, before passing on it to save the dollar.

[Mav]

This is going to be a long post, but I am fasting, so thought lets share, need to kill time. After all, sharing is caring. Adding some pics and vdos from my student life, so hopefully you wont be bored. I will share both the Struggling part and the Positives/fun - although overall it was more struggle than fun.

My student life was not a easy one. I completed my studies while working 40+ hours for years to support my living cost and and some of my tuition cost. Beside that, there are many stories that cant be told, or even if I type here, it will be a sea of words and even then may not be completely understood. So, I will just share some positive and negative that i got out of my time in USA. May be it will give an idea to some young tiger fans here planning to study abroad.

The struggling Part:

It was all good up to S.S.C. Lived in Saudi Arabia, went to the Embassy School from 93-98. Then out of my own surprise, I went to Arlington, Texas, USA and joined the Arlington high school there from Grade 10. I didnt plan to go to US, but as my father went through a major kidney transplant operation, all our business went down the hill and for my life to continue, it seemed logical to send me to USA since my Elder brother was already there.

It was a huge cultural shock for me. I felt like i was thrown into the "American Pie" movie. In reality the PDA in the high school was even worse than the movie. However, i was more of a "The New Guy" who studied, worked and took part in sports. I scored 6 goals on the first day i took part in field hockey. I made friends. I was only 17, however to be really honest, i was in love with the new place, environment, friends from different backgrounds and all. It started all good.

My parents were not in USA, only my elder brother was. However, after High school, I had to transfer to a new location for my college, Weatherford college in Texas. Suddenly I was all lone again. Not under the shadow of a brother or parents, all by myself which sounds exciting indeed but can be hard emotionally for a 19-20 yr old.
Moved in to dorm, had a good American buddy as a roommate.

I started with this community college in a small town in Texas because the tuition was
affordable and my parents could not pay for my tuition, given that our business was still in its babystep, since my father just had a major kidney transplant operation a year back. I cant tell you how hard it was, I skipped the dorm food, and my budget was - not to spend more than $5-$6 a day on food.

I started getting the taste of what life is. You are on your own. I really felt out of space, specially in the small town with almost no BD students on my campus. For the first time i was really on my own, without any shadow. Anyway, I took it all without any choice. I realized that I have to work to support my living cost and tuition because my family was not in a position to pay much, So I started working in a gas station near by. And I started playing music with pianos we had in cafeteria and school of music, to rejuvinate me sometime.

Here is a VDO.
(I sure not many of you are as nostalgic as I am. If you see the VDO , you will know)



And then there were many stories that I am skipping, stories of good and bad experience that was sometime surprising for a 19-20 year old living by himself on foreign soil. But just want to share the following struggles which many of us International students go through -

Being an international international student is not easy in USA. Unless your parents cover all your tuition + Living expenses, you have a tough life. But there is a feeling of completness and happiness also that you are able to support yourself. I kept earning $$ for my own expenses (Dorm Cost, cell phone, food, entertainment). I kept working 40-45 hours each week, supporting all my living cost and also passing courses while enrolled full time.

• I worked in gas station day and night shifts( was robbed once at gun point in 2008),
• Delivered pizza with my 800 dollar bought car (the car was - Geo Prizm, used to shake when a truck passed by, i sold the car for 900 later )
• Delivered Subs and sandwiches
• worked in motels - day/night shifts (11pm-7am)
• made sandwices in Subway
• sold sunglasses in Mall

Later in 2005, I bought a good one, honda accord -



And then years passed like this, work and study. Did not visit BD in the meantime as my family managed to visit me in USA. I Graduated. I got a contractual agreement with J P Morgan Chase to join as a Financial Analyst. I was rejected on 11 interviews before i finally got into a good company, yah !!



My First table in corporate America - JPMorgan Chase.



Here is a VDO I made, clips from 08,09,10. My apartments in last 3 years in Texas.



What I take out of it - The positive is I learned what dignity is, I learned how not to trust anyone easily, it made me cautious about life, about choosing friends/partners.

The Positive/Fun -

I take that the biggest lesson I learned is to keep your dignity intact. I take it as a positive. And all these years in USA, i was in touch with music, as you can see in the first VDO. I made good friends, we went on camps, roadtrips etc. I had Fun while going through all these tough times. I could not stop music as it is a part of me, although all those struggles sometimes were sucking the life out of me - Music was the fuel. here are some pics/vdos -










Thats' all. :-)

[PoorFan]

Nice read Kabir, especially well written, detailed and organized post from Mev.

To me it is always touchy to hear from such guys who had to deal with life in their teen. Me too had to support my life as well as education on my own in Tokyo [I was 19/20 back then], hence understand how tough and lonely life could be. I had to work 12 - 13 hours all night long for few months, and slept only couple of hours before attending class. I am not going into detail any more, fearing the thread might head to a new direction.

In my case, MTV music, watching tennis, and most importantly keeping disconnected from deshi community was my only source of energy. My lesson is ... life does change, much more positive, realistic, and successful way if one have to deal with life in his/her early days.

I shall come back with my shcool life memories in Dhaka later, Not necessarily with 'seka' stories.