The poem above is about arriving in Bangladesh. My parents and the rest of my family come from Bangladesh while only me and my older sister were born in the US. In the poem I delineate how before the trip, every single day would feel exactly the same with my routine life. Wake up, study, eat, sleep, repeat. Life can be so banal if there is no change, and a person’s perspective outside of their own bubble starts to diminish if we don’t discover new things, meet new people, and live a little differently. 

Accordingly, after coming to Bangladesh, I have seen new places, new things, and new people all with different ideas and backgrounds and ways of living. I describe this as a “palette of all sorts of people” in the poem, which is absolutely true. The rest of the poem goes on to describe what I call my “pilgrimage of happiness.” Seeing family that I haven’t visited in so many years opened my eyes and heart more from my shrinking world perspective from seeing the same people and places 24/7. I realized the effect that the ties of blood can have on people. Even after seeing my cousins and aunts and uncles after so long, I’ve never felt as close to people as I had with them. My cousins became my brothers and sisters, and my aunts and uncles became my fathers and mothers. All of this love filled my heart entirely. 

The poem demonstrates how I filled the emptiness that I never knew existed. My heart and eyes are open, and love and happiness is all I feel. This is life. The unfortunate part is that when I return to America and my routine life, my mind might close again, just focussing on myself and my own concerns. But in that case, I’ll just need to find some other way to open it. Anyways, I can meet new people and try new things anywhere in the world, even in my hometown. At least my newfound disposition of opening my heart and mind will remain.