My name is Pawandeep Singh and as of now I am deciding between a biology major and a psychology major. I am interested in pre-med and hope to become a doctor, specifically a pediatrician. I chose to enroll in the CUNY Honors College because it offered a great education at little to no cost at all. CUNY Honors College is becoming well recognized throughout many graduate schools for it offers a great education and this recognition is important since I would need to enroll in a graduate school in order to become a doctor. From this “The Peopling of New York” seminar, I hope to learn more about the community that Brooklyn College is a part of. I also hope to learn more about the community of New York as a whole since a doctor’s job tends to be focused on the community. Out of Brooklyn College, I hope to get a great education pertaining to my major as well as an education that does not have to do with my major.
I cannot say much about the immigration experience of Brooklyn since my first time setting foot in Brooklyn was the day I attended this college. However, my parents are immigrants to this country. In the 1980s, my mother immigrated to the United States. She lived with her brother and his family and worked as a cashier in multiple stores. In 1990 my parents were married and in 1994 my dad immigrated to the United States. He started off working odd jobs but continued with his education by taking night classes and ultimately ended up as a civil engineer working for the Department of Transportation. At the time when my mom immigrated, there were not many Indians in the country. It was around that time that people from India started coming to America in small numbers.
Since my parents were immigrants, they had to start from nothing and build their way up. Expenses had to be managed and savings had to be made. We lived in apartments for most of my life since buying a house was not something we could afford. It was not until three years ago that we bought a house of our own. The immigrant experience has definitely impacted my life. My parents came into this country with nothing and have ever since been working very hard to make a living. The immigration experience has led my parents to teach me that nothing in life comes easy and that if I want something, I have to go out and work hard.
My parents always tell my brother and I that the main reason they emigrated from India to the United States was to provide better opportunities for us. This includes getting a better education and having better standards of living. I do feel that my social background has mattered to the life I lead in New York City and has been a factor in applying to Macaulay Honors College. My father went to college and he has always pushed my brother and me to do the same thing. Both my parents push my brother and I to take education seriously and to pursue it until we have a degree. To them, education should be our first priority.
In terms to the life I lead in N.Y.C., my ethnicity, race, and religion have led me to be close to my culture and to those who are of the same ethnicity, race, and religion. In terms of my decision to apply to Macaulay, I feel that me being a member of the middle class has been a factor. My family is a part of the middle class and I see all of the expenses that my parents have to make on a monthly basis. With my parents having to pay bills, taxes, mortgage, insurance, and other things, the decision to apply to Macaulay Honors College was a simple one. My parents did not have to be burdened with the cost of tuition on top of everything else. This helps a lot because I know that going to graduate school and medical school is not cheap. The four years that I do not have to pay tuition for college helps my parents save up more money for graduate school. Another reason that led me to apply to Macaulay Honors College was that a couple of my Indian friends were also enrolled in the school and had spoken highly of the school.
Living in New York is a great thing. There are so many more opportunities in this great city than most other places. New York City offers many jobs and my parents have been lucky enough to find good jobs that can help support our expenses. The dream of every immigrant is to become successful in the United States and ultimately to become a homeowner and my parents have definitely accomplished this. Being New Yorkers have led my family to be less conservative and more open-minded to change.
Living in New York is a great opportunity to meet people from all around the world. As New Yorkers we are a lot more open and accepting of others since we are so diverse of a city. There are a lot of Indians, specifically fellow Punjabi people in New York, which makes it easy to carry out cultural traditions. There are gurudwaras, which is our house of worship, in many neighborhoods so it is easy to go every Sunday. My family participates in the Sikh community picnic every year and my brother and I participate in a weeklong gurudwara camp every summer. My family and many other Indians continue to celebrate our cultural holidays here. This is all possible because New Yorkers tend to be so accepting of other cultures and religions.
One of the places important to my family is our gurudwara that we go to every week. It is where we go to pray and give thanks to god for everything we have. Another place important to my family is my house. It took my parents many years of hard work to save up enough money to buy a house. The house represents all of their struggles and hardships but it a symbol of success to us.
Well that’s me on the left and on the right is a picture of my gurudwara, a place of worship where my family goes every week.
