Going into my Freshman year of college I was not expecting anything, anything at all. I was not expecting anything to be out of the ordinary. I expected to go to class, do my homework, join clubs, and meet new people. The last thing I expected was to find some of my best friends, and to travel half way across the world. Before we delve into the adventures that I took you have to get to know the freshman me, and trust me when I say this: he’s not that interesting of a kid.

Coming into Freshman year I was for all intents and purposes a nerd. I liked to play copious amounts of video games, I read a lot of books (mostly fiction), and I watched the most campy television shows. I was a recluse, very quiet, timid, and a dork. The first few weeks of freshman year I would go to bed at 9:30 p.m. while the other guys on my floor would stay up and do delinquent things. It wasn’t until one of those guys (who now I would consider one of my good friends) said: “why do you go to bed so early?” I didn’t know what to say, from then on I would stay up late shoot the shit and before I knew it I had become friends with just about everyone on the floor.

It was after a couple of encounters with my future roommate that he asked me: “Would you want to go to India with me?” I was stunned, I didn’t know what to say. I immediately started to think: “That’s an insane question to ask somebody, what the hell? I’ve only known this guy for half a year and he’s asking me to go to India!” Those thoughts were dashed out of my mind quickly, those were the thoughts of the old me, the one who would sit in his basement and play video games until 3 o’clock in the morning, the one who would only talk about what he had previously read in Game of Thrones, no it was time to “kill the boy” as Aemon Targaryen told Jon Snow to do (sorry I just really like Game of Thrones). I said “Yes” leaving it to the future Mitch to sort it out with his parents at a later date.

It was on a winter day sometime in 2015 when I told my father what my roommate had proposed. Asking with no hope that he would say yes, I was astounded when he said: “Yes, absolutely, just make sure he’s serious.” Elated I thought to myself: “Holy shit, I’m going to India.” As soon as I got back to school I asked my friend if he was serious about allowing me to go to India with him, his reply: “Yeah of course!” Holy shit, I was going to India.

Every week I will write a post about my time in India, not sure when exactly it will come out just expect every week.