At 19-years-old I found myself on a journey across the world, from India, the country I was born and raised in, to USA, the country that my liberal arts college resided in. On a warm August afternoon in 2022, with two big blue suitcases in hand, I walked out of Denver International Airport excited for orientation the next day at Naropa University.

CU Boulder’s cute small cousin of a university, Naropa, is located at the heart of Boulder; small and quaint and steeped in a foundation of Buddhism and contemplative practice. As a short 5-foot-tall Indian woman, even this tiny university intimidated me when I first came. However, the dreams of the 8-year-old within me of being a writer and going to college for Creative Writing and Literature pushed me to step foot into Boulder, determined to build my life. Glass of change and bricks of novelty were the materials my hands fumbled with as I began to make Boulder home.

Writing has been my lens of the world for as long as I can remember. It is a way for me to observe and understand this life; the complexities of emotions, identities, socialization and so much more. My deep interest and fascination with psychology and sociology colors my work! I love bringing out nuanced sides of stories. I hope that readers always leave my pieces either thinking and pondering or perhaps feeling understood or seen. My intention has always been to find a voice for things we are too busy to acknowledge, or don’t know how to explain, so that we create a world where we all feel more witnessed, more aware and more held.

I have lived here almost four years now and graduated from Naropa University with a BA double major in Creative Writing and Literature, and Psychology. Change has been my constant companion through these years, and she and I have cultivated home out of a place we never thought we’d feel that way in.

Much of my free time is spent on the trails around this city, driving into the canyon and finding small pieces of silence to sit in. The best part of my time here has undoubtedly been the time I’ve spent outside. Nature is my religion. Boulder has always been a free, open, and encouraging space for me to practice and worship it.

Buddhism (as you might have gathered from my choice in university) is an influential thread in the way I see life, and I have loved observing how it has touched Boulder. As a person who grew up in the East where the religion was founded, it’s been enthralling to see and understand how the West, and Boulder specifically, has been influenced by it.
These are two spheres my words tend to walk into; contemplation and nature are big motifs of my writing and of my life, and both these motifs are ever-present and available here in Boulder.

Despite the problems our city has, despite the complaints I hear about Boulder or the things we could improve on, nobody can tear the love I have for this land away from me. In every step I’ve taken hiking through the horizons, waking up to the elegant flatirons, and feeling the crisp air embrace me, my peace and joy have been stitched to the very breath I take living here. I’m looking forward to writing for About Boulder because I am all about Boulder! I hope to write more into my experience here, about the people I’ve met, the perspectives and values my time here has instilled in me, and much more about Boulder’s impact on my life.

Thank you for reading!
Sambhavi (Bhavi, because that name is clearly too long)

Sambhani Ashok

Sambhavi Ashok graduated from Naropa University, with a double major in Creative Writing and Literature and Psychology. She aims to pursue a career in editing and publishing. As a writer she loves finding history in people's eyes and searching for the stories that make us human. As an editor, she focuses on the nuances of a piece and pushing it towards innovation and texture. Currently she’s writing about the complexity of relationships, the intricacies of nature, and the tension in language. She lives in Boulder and loves exploring the mountains and horizons in her free time.