With the year finally coming to a close, South Asian Students decided to host our chosen organization on campus so that they could talk a little more about their work.

The organization in question is Counselors Helping (South) Asians/Indians,Inc. (CHAI). As their name suggests, they assist South Asians, in particular, with issues of Mental Health and Mental Wellness.

The focus group we had on campus revolved around identity, displacement, and stressors which for me at least, was kind of eye opening. Other than the occasional realization that America sometimes functions very differently from back home aka Pakistan, I’d never really felt like I was…culture shocked? To see people coming forth and sharing their own experiences, which in some cases were so drastically different, was educational.

The organization’s reps who came over managed to hold a very casual, open ended conversation about what identity means to different people and how they think it affects their day to day life. A theme which, inadvertently perhaps, tied into the theme we had for our Culture Show as well. At any rate, I discovered that for a single word, ‘identity’ sure has a way of creeping up in conversation in a million different forms. Which initially, if one is as unused to thinking about identity as I was, can be a little surprising.

But ultimately, is fitting.

Because one thing I’ve learnt from all the conversation we’ve had about identity this year, there’s really no way of setting up parameters around it that will be considered valid by every single person involved. So instead of feuding over who is wrong and who isn’t, maybe its best to leave it an amorphous, nebulous thing.

Accessible to all.