I went to a boarding school, like most Nigerians do, where each day was strictly planned out for students. Morning assembly at 7 a.m.; breakfast at 7:30 a.m.; lunch at 1:20 p.m.; siesta at 2:30 p.m; free time, which most people used to wash their uniforms, at 3:30 p.m.; and prep (study time) from 4 to 5 p.m. — every single day.

Parents were only allowed to visit students on “visiting day,” which occurred on Sunday, twice a term (semester). I had went to boarding school since I was 11. So you can guess that when I started school here at Iowa State, even though I was only 16 and I had never been to the United States before, I thought I would have no problems. In secondary school, I used to brag to my classmates that I had taken the SATs, which meant I was planning on schooling in America.

It also meant that I wouldn’t have to deal with any more random power outages. No more getting cut off in the middle of a TV show, only to be left guessing how the show might have ended. People often joked that NEPA, which stands for Nigerian Electric Power Authority, should be renamed Never Expect Power Always.

I would also no longer have to wash my clothes by hand, like I did every day in secondary school. Students were only allowed to bring four uniforms to the dorms. This meant that you had to wash and dry your clothes pretty much every day for you to have something to wear the next day, because it took about a day for the clothes that had been hung out to dry.

On my first day here, when I stood in my Linden Hall room and looked outside the window, I stared for the first time at many things I had taken for granted.

There were people outside hugging each other, welcoming each other back. Many of them probably went to high school together or had probably gotten to know each other while they had been here.

The feeling that there would be no one I grew up with reminded me that I was still a 16-year-old starting college in a foreign country, facing the prospect of losing most of the friends I went to secondary school with — so I could wear designer clothes, watch TV shows without fear of the power going off and wash and dry my clothes with a washer and dryer.

Many people see international students here and might not realize what they are sacrificing to be here.

There are some Nigerians I know who went to part of high school here who lie about where they are from. It isn’t cool to be different in high school here, and I have heard stories of people who were ignored and ridiculed. My guess is that people who lie about where they are from subconsciously don’t want to go through what they went through when they first came here.

On the other hand, there are people who complain about some frustrations with culture shock, ignorance and other issues, but would never voice their opinions in public.

This is my last opinion column for the Daily, and I would love to see more international students get involved in voicing their opinions any way they can. They, as well as others, would benefit from the experience.