Crossing Cultures
Growning up in a "trailer-park", I was not surround by many cultures. All my neighbors were caucasian-americans who did not have a lot of money. Since most families in my neighborhood lacked money, us kids were forced to use our imagination to entertain ourselves; we would play outside in the woods or run up and down our street playing games and having a good time together. I can remember my best-friend I grew up with was african-american, however I never noticed the color of her skin. She was my friend and her skin tone did not matter to me. It was not until adolescense that we began to notice how culturally different we were; that was when I started to realize that most of America consisted of many diverse cultures, and not just caucasian-american. I was a little surprise when I started high school and found a whole new world of people; my high school was much more culturally diverse than my old trailer park, however I made a very smooth transition.
I consider myself to be culturally sensitive, more now then when I was a child. I see all the different cultures that exist around me today; even in people who are caucasian, I can see the different cultures they are made up of. I have a strong respect for people made up of different cultures because it allows me the opportunity to learn new things about our world. Every human on this planet is similar, in that we're all human, however we all have a different way of life. Since we are all different, I really enjoy learning about how different cultures behave and why they do. I cannot explain why I find it so fascinating, I just do.
In high school, I studied Spanish my senior year, which started this flame of curiosity within me. I found the Mexican and Spanish cultures to very extremely interesting and I really enjoyed what I studied in that class. I believe because of this class I am now so enthralled when I get the opportunity to learn about new cultures and ideas that exist around our world. I enjoy my American ideals, however it is sometimes nice to know that there are other ideas in our world; it keeps us from being bland and boring.