Coming to Purdue exposed me to a lot of diverse situations that I had never encountered before. Everyone from the city I lived in before had grown up in the area and is very similar. 6 months ago I thought that my school compared to others in the area was very diverse. I now see how wrong I was because every person at Purdue has a very different story and you would never be able to guess where someone is from or what they did unless you got to know them very well. In my engineering group I met someone that I thought was an international student from Thailand because of the way he spoke and how he talked about being born there, turns out he lived in Indiana before coming to Purdue. Another student I got to know told me she was from China and about three weeks later I learned that her and her family had been living in Tennessee. My understanding of what people consider home and assumptions about where people are from have changed completely, I now see that in order to truly find out where someone is from and know their story, I need to get to know them well in order to full grasp the situation and be able to understand him or her.
Great observation, the broad, in my experience thus far, the rich range diverse interactions with other students is so much greater in college than it ever was in high school - as big or 'multi-racial' as it may have been. In great part, even though we had many races present at my high school, most everyone grew up with each other, and had many similar experiences. In a way, you didn't really have to 'get to know' somebody to know some basic things about them in large part. You could sit and talk with most anybody knowing that you'll have a good amount of common ground.
ReplyDeleteOne adjustment that I've tried to make in the university and other settings is taking the time to find out somebody's back-story before making assumptions, and that way get all of the stories and insights that come with it.
-ENGR 103
I had the same assumption of my school and my life being very diverse, but many people here have the same or even more experience than me. I've had many of those experiences when I meet someone for the first time and assume that they've lived in their home country for their entire life but have actually lived in the United States their entire life or a part of their life.
ReplyDeleteENGR 103