“Hey, dude.”
“Yeah?”
“Do you wanna do this?”
“Let’s do it.”
Hi, hello. This is Praneeka Raman and Madeline Hamilton, and welcome to our blog, GARAMASALAS. We thought it would be a good idea to share our thoughts with you. Since some of you may not know us, we want to introduce ourselves and share how we got to this idea in the first place. Warning: this is going to be a rather long post, so bear with us! We really hope you enjoy our journey to become more open-minded young adults.
Q: You both are going to the Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science (TAMS). What made you go there and what was your life like before you came?
A:
Madeline- Before TAMS, I went to a straight-up Jesus School in Flower Mound. It was so conservative that for a few weeks during my freshman year, the hottest topic of gossip was that my English teacher MIGHT be liberal. I hated it there. Everyone thought I was strange because I was obsessed with math, and no one really wanted to become close friends with me. The lack of higher math classes and diversity in mindset also frustrated me. When I tried to talk to my friends about deeper topics like politics, religion and philosophy, I always got the same replies, no matter who I spoke to. It was like I was talking to the same person over and over again, and it depressed me. I tried to think of ways that I could access a less monotone environment, and I remembered TAMS. My mom had told me about the program since I was small; my grandpa helped form it in the 80’s. I decided to apply with my friend Noah. The day that I got accepted was the most exciting of my life.
Praneeka- I went to Allen High School before I came to TAMS. Yes, the school that spent $60 million to build a football stadium. AHS is a very huge school; I swear I saw a new person every day when I walked in the main hallway. I did have many friends, but it was very hard for me to find a group I could stick with. I was a “go with the flow” type of person, and it was very frustrating after a while. But this wasn’t my main problem. Many people belittled me for being what they thought of as a different person. Dumb. Stupid. Weird. Unsuccessful. These are just some of the words that were associated with my name. I was so tired and depressed. Then I heard about TAMS, and it sounded like the only viable option to get out of this environment. I also wanted to get accepted just so I could prove to these people that I am, in fact, an intellectual being with well-intentioned values.
Q: Since you both came from different environments and with different goals, how was TAMS when you first came? Was it as you had expected?
A:
Madeline- I went into the program ecstatic; I was so excited to be learning things that were at least remotely related to my subject of interest and to make friends that were similar to me. My classes were about what I expected. My social life was not. I was a white girl in a sea of East and South Asians. People insensitively joke that all Asians look the same, but this turned out to be a legitimate problem for me. During the first few weeks of school, I would approach my Indian roommate whenever I saw her, only to realize that I was not talking to my roommate at all, but another Indian person that I thought was her. Additionally, everyone around me would often talk about food, music, dances, and languages from their home country, and I was so incredibly lost. Despite this, I made friends easily. I still had a lot things in common with my peers (it’s not like Indian people talk about saris all day), so I ended up becoming friends with several of the people around me, including my wonderful roommate. I eventually settled in. During all of this, however, I slowly began to realize something. I had been drowned in horribly racist, sexist, and restricting mentalities my entire life, and I thought that I had separated myself from them. I thought I was so different from the people at my old school, and I believed I was so superior to them for recognizing the close-mindedness of their ideals. But during the first two months of school, I realized that I wasn’t different from those people at all. I thought racist thoughts about the other TAMS kids, even my own roommate, and I insulted religions other than Christianity in my head as people talked about them. As I recognized that I was no different than the people I encountered at home, I was devastated, and I desperately searched for a way to kill off the ideas that had been hammered into me as a child. Meanwhile, even though I had many close friends, I still didn’t feel like I had a best friend that I could share EVERYTHING with, including my despair about the toxic mentalities within me. I didn’t actively search for someone like this; I felt like it was a hopeless cause. But somehow, I found someone anyway. (P.S. That "someone" is Praneeka, if you hadn't figured that out already.)
Praneeka- When I got in, I was very excited to be in what I had thought of as a completely new school. I first came with desires of becoming popular and having a large, close friend group. TAMS predominantly consists of South and East Asian students, and I had discovered that the Indians all had become a big group. They had exactly what I wanted. I tried to center myself with the Indian crowd because I thought they would be more open and accepting of me. I was wrong. The people turned out to be almost exactly the same as the people from my old school, and we did not share the same interests. I was also bullied so extensively by them for being “weird” and having really dark skin that I wanted to go back home. But looking back, I am glad I had these setbacks. After all of these incidents, I quickly came to the realization that I came into TAMS with a horrible mindset. I was just very greedy of getting many friends because I didn’t have many close friends in Allen. I eventually understood that friendship is about quality, not quantity. I found an absolutely amazing group of people who were considered “off-the-grid” here; each person I friended had an element I liked, but I couldn’t really find someone with all of those likable characteristics put into one. I had a feeling that it was not likely that I would find a friend like that, but I still tried. And boy, did that work pay off. We’ll explain how all that worked out eventually!
Q: So why a blog?
A:
Madeline- My roommate didn’t know it at first, but she slowly helped me reverse my racist tendencies. She did this partially by being so amazing, and partially by regularly telling me about her views on racism and other issues in America. I violently opposed them at first (in my head, of course), but eventually agreed with them as I became more aware of and repulsed by my own bigotry. I wanted to fight it off in myself and in others, not so I could be “one of the good white people,” but so I could actively combat the oppression that makes so many people’s lives miserable. I really wanted a platform to relay my thoughts, not only about social justice issues, but also about philosophy, math, and the little things I see every day that make me smile.
Praneeka- So Madeline’s roommate, aka my fave Indian gal pal, Ragini, helped me get into social justice-related issues, especially events that proved to be examples of white supremacy, colorism, and racism. From a young age, I was surrounded by white people, and I had always thought they were accepting of me. But I was wrong. I had become very appalled at what half of the U.S. thinks of racial minorities. I feel like people really need to understand that believing one race is better than the other is not going to help us in any way. The one thing that frustrates me the most is that most people here cause so much commotion with conceived knowledge based on stereotypes, and not many take the time to actually research the real lives of foreign Americans. I wanted to find a way of educating people about how WRONG Indian stereotypes are and how our lives in a modern society really are. So no, we are not all, as you say, “cow-praising”, marriage crazy, computer nerds. Through our friendship, we’ll try our best to show you how our experiences prove the fact that people of different races can work with each other and succeed together.
Thanks for reading, and I hope you continue hearing from us!
Much Love,
Pran & Mad
“Yeah?”
“Do you wanna do this?”
“Let’s do it.”
Hi, hello. This is Praneeka Raman and Madeline Hamilton, and welcome to our blog, GARAMASALAS. We thought it would be a good idea to share our thoughts with you. Since some of you may not know us, we want to introduce ourselves and share how we got to this idea in the first place. Warning: this is going to be a rather long post, so bear with us! We really hope you enjoy our journey to become more open-minded young adults.
Q: You both are going to the Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science (TAMS). What made you go there and what was your life like before you came?
A:
Madeline- Before TAMS, I went to a straight-up Jesus School in Flower Mound. It was so conservative that for a few weeks during my freshman year, the hottest topic of gossip was that my English teacher MIGHT be liberal. I hated it there. Everyone thought I was strange because I was obsessed with math, and no one really wanted to become close friends with me. The lack of higher math classes and diversity in mindset also frustrated me. When I tried to talk to my friends about deeper topics like politics, religion and philosophy, I always got the same replies, no matter who I spoke to. It was like I was talking to the same person over and over again, and it depressed me. I tried to think of ways that I could access a less monotone environment, and I remembered TAMS. My mom had told me about the program since I was small; my grandpa helped form it in the 80’s. I decided to apply with my friend Noah. The day that I got accepted was the most exciting of my life.
Praneeka- I went to Allen High School before I came to TAMS. Yes, the school that spent $60 million to build a football stadium. AHS is a very huge school; I swear I saw a new person every day when I walked in the main hallway. I did have many friends, but it was very hard for me to find a group I could stick with. I was a “go with the flow” type of person, and it was very frustrating after a while. But this wasn’t my main problem. Many people belittled me for being what they thought of as a different person. Dumb. Stupid. Weird. Unsuccessful. These are just some of the words that were associated with my name. I was so tired and depressed. Then I heard about TAMS, and it sounded like the only viable option to get out of this environment. I also wanted to get accepted just so I could prove to these people that I am, in fact, an intellectual being with well-intentioned values.
Q: Since you both came from different environments and with different goals, how was TAMS when you first came? Was it as you had expected?
A:
Madeline- I went into the program ecstatic; I was so excited to be learning things that were at least remotely related to my subject of interest and to make friends that were similar to me. My classes were about what I expected. My social life was not. I was a white girl in a sea of East and South Asians. People insensitively joke that all Asians look the same, but this turned out to be a legitimate problem for me. During the first few weeks of school, I would approach my Indian roommate whenever I saw her, only to realize that I was not talking to my roommate at all, but another Indian person that I thought was her. Additionally, everyone around me would often talk about food, music, dances, and languages from their home country, and I was so incredibly lost. Despite this, I made friends easily. I still had a lot things in common with my peers (it’s not like Indian people talk about saris all day), so I ended up becoming friends with several of the people around me, including my wonderful roommate. I eventually settled in. During all of this, however, I slowly began to realize something. I had been drowned in horribly racist, sexist, and restricting mentalities my entire life, and I thought that I had separated myself from them. I thought I was so different from the people at my old school, and I believed I was so superior to them for recognizing the close-mindedness of their ideals. But during the first two months of school, I realized that I wasn’t different from those people at all. I thought racist thoughts about the other TAMS kids, even my own roommate, and I insulted religions other than Christianity in my head as people talked about them. As I recognized that I was no different than the people I encountered at home, I was devastated, and I desperately searched for a way to kill off the ideas that had been hammered into me as a child. Meanwhile, even though I had many close friends, I still didn’t feel like I had a best friend that I could share EVERYTHING with, including my despair about the toxic mentalities within me. I didn’t actively search for someone like this; I felt like it was a hopeless cause. But somehow, I found someone anyway. (P.S. That "someone" is Praneeka, if you hadn't figured that out already.)
Praneeka- When I got in, I was very excited to be in what I had thought of as a completely new school. I first came with desires of becoming popular and having a large, close friend group. TAMS predominantly consists of South and East Asian students, and I had discovered that the Indians all had become a big group. They had exactly what I wanted. I tried to center myself with the Indian crowd because I thought they would be more open and accepting of me. I was wrong. The people turned out to be almost exactly the same as the people from my old school, and we did not share the same interests. I was also bullied so extensively by them for being “weird” and having really dark skin that I wanted to go back home. But looking back, I am glad I had these setbacks. After all of these incidents, I quickly came to the realization that I came into TAMS with a horrible mindset. I was just very greedy of getting many friends because I didn’t have many close friends in Allen. I eventually understood that friendship is about quality, not quantity. I found an absolutely amazing group of people who were considered “off-the-grid” here; each person I friended had an element I liked, but I couldn’t really find someone with all of those likable characteristics put into one. I had a feeling that it was not likely that I would find a friend like that, but I still tried. And boy, did that work pay off. We’ll explain how all that worked out eventually!
Q: So why a blog?
A:
Madeline- My roommate didn’t know it at first, but she slowly helped me reverse my racist tendencies. She did this partially by being so amazing, and partially by regularly telling me about her views on racism and other issues in America. I violently opposed them at first (in my head, of course), but eventually agreed with them as I became more aware of and repulsed by my own bigotry. I wanted to fight it off in myself and in others, not so I could be “one of the good white people,” but so I could actively combat the oppression that makes so many people’s lives miserable. I really wanted a platform to relay my thoughts, not only about social justice issues, but also about philosophy, math, and the little things I see every day that make me smile.
Praneeka- So Madeline’s roommate, aka my fave Indian gal pal, Ragini, helped me get into social justice-related issues, especially events that proved to be examples of white supremacy, colorism, and racism. From a young age, I was surrounded by white people, and I had always thought they were accepting of me. But I was wrong. I had become very appalled at what half of the U.S. thinks of racial minorities. I feel like people really need to understand that believing one race is better than the other is not going to help us in any way. The one thing that frustrates me the most is that most people here cause so much commotion with conceived knowledge based on stereotypes, and not many take the time to actually research the real lives of foreign Americans. I wanted to find a way of educating people about how WRONG Indian stereotypes are and how our lives in a modern society really are. So no, we are not all, as you say, “cow-praising”, marriage crazy, computer nerds. Through our friendship, we’ll try our best to show you how our experiences prove the fact that people of different races can work with each other and succeed together.
Thanks for reading, and I hope you continue hearing from us!
Much Love,
Pran & Mad
