Not exactly sure why you tagged me in here but I’m game, whatever. I like this piece, though I suspect it features a different country than the ones I grew up in. As an American, my desire for the exotic to be explained like I’m 5 is not fulfilled in your piece. I think it’s good as it stands but I think you could widen your appeal to the culturally curious if you expand some description of the setting, name the locations (perhaps by city rather than country so that Americans can pat themselves on the back that they know where Istanbul or Bangkok or Mumbai are, and reassure themselves of their vast global understanding 🙄) and add sensory stuff — smells, colors

Stuff that I know Americans won’t get:

Exam permission (not necessary)

Being 23 km from a testing center — we live on campus or as close as possible

The c-word. It’s strangely off-limits for us and will put off many of us, believe it or not.

Modes of transportation. They might not understand that motorbikes can be practical and a cheaper entry to the road than cars since here motorcycles mainly signal rebellion. We’re also not going to know anything about rickshaws, auto or otherwise.

If you don’t want an American audience, please disregard all of the advice here. And, as always, disregard the advice you think doesn’t work for your piece.

Have a good day. Best of luck on Medium, my friend.