My Future Journey

There is a lot of diversity in the world. Everyone comes from a different place and for the next few months I would like to learn what makes myself and others so diverse. 

I have been learning about how every single connection I have in my life has affected me in different ways. My family, my school, my city, my friends, my church, the list goes on and on. These are the social groups I've been put in throughout my life and my personal experience is unique from anyone else. Don't get me wrong, I love talking about my self, but I believe you don't get anywhere just telling others about you. It's much more productive to inquire about others' lives. I want to learn about the experiences and struggles others go through that are different than me so I can become more aware and educated.

I am concerned that this journey may cause me to face my assumptions and biases that I have towards certain people. Some examples include poor people, immigrants, and people who grew up in small towns. I may have to make some changes in the way that I think to become more accepting and inclusive towards everyone, because there is no reason to treat someone badly just because they are different. I realize that saying this is a lot easier than putting it into practice, but the first step in my mind is declaring what I want to accomplish.

After all this is over, I hope that I can use what I've learned to talk with my closest friend group, because they are way too comfortable making racist jokes and speaking disrespectfully towards others. They make fun of black people and call liberals uneducated snowflakes. Sometimes I feel like I have to apologize for their behavior when I introduce them to my other friends. Maybe I can learn to do something about this issue.

Diversity means different things to different people. To me it has always been everything that makes you, you. Race, family, faith, traditions, community, country, language, hobbies, sex, orientation, values, and so much more is diversity. Having others like you makes you no less diverse either, but if you find yourself in the majority I feel it is extremely important not to forget about the minority and allow them to speak about their experiences. In my life, I have found myself in both the majority and minority, and I hope people on both sides can realize that we are different in some ways and the same in others, and we can still work together to include and care for one another.

I have studied other cultures in the past through web articles, videos, and personal testimonies, but I feel like I still have much to learn. I think that although I know a lot of information about these topics, I still need to organize my thoughts so I can make better sense of what I've heard on the internet (and elsewhere).