Differences

About half of what you learn in college has nothing to do with classes. Part of that involves broadening your view of the world, and learning about people and perspectives that are different from your own. Some call it diversity, some multi-culturalism, what I’m talking about here is more than that. It’s exposure to new and different ideas and experiences, new people and their cultures, new ways of thinking about things. I’m talking about learning about the whole range of how people do things and how they live their lives that exists outside what you’ve seen before. I don’t mean to imply there is anything wrong with your experience or that you need to change your thinking or your actions. But everybody could use a little broadening of their perspective…

Consider each of the following apparent conflicts:

Ethnic diversity (you comment to your Black roommate that you’re looking forward to getting to know someone who is African American. Your Nigerian roommate, the one to whom you were referring, says he’d like to get to know them too.)
Opinion (you support Hillary Clinton, your date supports…Chavez!)
Religion/faith (your agnostic religion professor ruffles your Baptist feathers)
Personal preferences and choices
- Music (you love country music, and the guys next door like techno – loud techno!)
- Food (you’re a vegetarian, and the cool girl who sits next to you in Chemistry grew up on a cattle ranch in Brazil.)
- Attire and fashion (your academic mentor explains to you that her tattoos only hurt for a little while, just before you explain to her that it’s not mud on your cowboy boots)
- Leisure activities (you want to plan a cricket tournament to raise money for your floor’s charity, but the rest of the floor thinks a dominos tournament is better).
- Personal care habits (your lab partner only bathes once a week, but she can’t stop sneezing at the smell of your perfume)
- Vocabulary (you tell your roommate his girlfriend is “phat”, he gives you a lip that is “fat”)
Economics/social class (you invite your new roommate to your family’s lake house for Fall Break. She invites you to her family’s island over Spring Break!)
Cultural and educational access (your new girlfriend tells you she wants you to meet her father who just earned his doctorate, and laughs when you ask if he might take a look at the ankle you just sprained)

Each apparent conflict is either an excellent opportunity for you to learn about something you’re not familiar with or a reminder that you are applying your own experience to others’ lives – or both. Learning about them can be as easy as apologizing to your Nigerian roommate and asking him to tell you about his country, or inviting your academic mentor to tag along with you next time you go groom or ride your horse. Just be open to discussing your own activities and culture, and willing to learn about others’.

Wherever you go to college, you will undoubtedly have the opportunity to see, experience or learn about a multitude of new things. If you’re smart, you’ll take advantage of those opportunities. Not everything you learn about will be positive or good, but THAT you learned about it will be.

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