Chores, Chores, and More Chores

A friend two time zones away teaches me to use the oven over a videocall (and tells me that I’m cutting the capsicum all wrong). Another friend teaches me the basics of laundry (no, Neha, you’re not supposed to fill the entire cap with detergent). My roommate teaches me to make rice, sees my failed attempt and thankfully takes matters into her own hands. But then the awful moment comes when you’re on your own, and it’s you against whichever chore hell has chosen to unleash upon you, and you realize that friends and roommates can only do so much. The dishes? They’re waiting grimly in the sink for you.

The dishes don’t end. Neither does the cooking, the laundering, or the cleaning. Every tidy room is a room that will need vacuuming soon. Every dust bunny you vacuum is dust bunny you’re going to fill up the trash with. Every time you take the trash out, you track mud in with your shoes– and cue the vacuuming again. There is nothing like living on your own, thinking about what to make for dinner for the five hundredth time, to make you feel the protagonist of a time loop movie.

But (despite everything I have said so far), I’m not actually here to complain about the chores. What sometimes is monotony, at other times is rhythm. When the assignments pile up, when you’re tired after a long day at work, or when you’re missing home a little too much, the only thing you can muster the energy for is the dishes. So, you go to the sink and begin moving like clockwork. Turn on the tap. Pick up the easiest thing to wash– a spoon. Clean it with the sponge. Soap bubbles gather, run down with the water, seep into the drain. Rinse the spoon and put it on the side. Where there were once no clean dishes, now there is one. On a day that felt too heavy, you still made this happen. When it seemed like you couldn’t do anything, you still did this.

International students come here with big dreams, things they want to change. You might want to change your path in life or your family’s story. You might want to change the world. Someday you will make the difference you want. But some days, you will only be able to make a difference to your cluttered sink. And thank god, then, for that cluttered sink. It will always remind you to take life one dish at a time.