The Little Things: How I Learned To Live Away From Home

I had never really lived outside my home.

Not in another city, state, country. Let alone another continent.

For 21 years, Delhi, India was home. I did my entire graduation here. I lived with my family. And honestly, I never really thought twice about it.

Then, I moved to France. Almost everyone I’ve met here has had some version of the opposite experience. They’ve lived away from home for university, moved countries for work, gone on exchanges, or spent time in different parts of the world.

Me? Nope.

So the last days have been a bit of a crash course in figuring things out on my own.

Navigating a new country. Figuring out French supermarkets. Doing my laundry. Cooking.

And doing all of this as a vegetarian who doesn't even eat eggs has made grocery shopping and eating out in a small French town an adventure of its own.

The cooking part still makes me laugh. And a few weeks ago, I found myself hosting a dinner and making Indian food for a table full of people from different countries. And, to my surprise, they actually liked it. Someone even asked if I did it professionally back home. For someone who had barely cooked before coming here, that felt like a pretty big deal.

Of course, it hasn’t all been exciting. There are still moments when everything feels unfamiliar. When I miss home. When something as simple as figuring out where to buy something can feel unnecessarily complicated. And somehow, all of this is happening alongside an increasingly hectic INSEAD schedule.

But I think that’s also the point. 

You don’t really become independent by deciding one day that you’re going to be independent. 

You become independent when there’s no one else around to do the little things for you. When you have to figure it out. And then figure out the next thing. It’s challenging. It’s chaotic. But more than anything, I love it. This is what I signed up for.