But we are ALL diverse!

I, like most people in our Hixson group, have come from a small, white, Christian town in Iowa. My graduating class had 36 people in it, and my town's nickname is 'Rodeo Town USA.' Coming to Iowa State was definitely a transition because I was not used to the kind of diversity we have here. It is amazing how many languages I can hear in a day across campus.

When talking about which diversities students may have the most difficult responses to, many of us had similar answers. One diversity that I have drastically changed my mind about is sexual orientation. I was always accepting of people of other sexual orientation but I didn't know very many who were open about it. It is not favored in my small town and creates gossip like a lot of other things. I recently found out that my best friend from high school is gay and he has known he was since before high school, but no one knew. He pretended like he wasn't because he knew he would be treated differently. He finally told me and most of his friends he met in college, but no one from our hometown knows, not even his parents. He has never been happier, but I cannot even imagine how he must have felt all that time or even what he is going through now. He is afraid his own family will abandon him, and he doesn't even want to think about the rest of our town. It took him this long to tell me, and I've been friends with him since 2nd grade. I actually introduced him to another one of my friends!

I think we so often forget to think about how the people we are judging must feel. Someone sees a transgender and makes fun of them, but imagine what the transgender is going through. It kind of relates to Chelsee's example of the Asians in the BookEnds cafe that she cannot understand. She may get frustrated with one because she can't understand them, but imagine what they must feel like with Everyone they try to communicate with. I try to think about being in other peoples' shoes and to imagine what they have to go through. With the situation of my friend and how he was afraid of losing even me because he thought my opinion might have changed of him is almost heartbreaking to think about. All we can do is to try to not judge others by their race, language, sexual orientation, etc. and to realize that we are all different, and no one is better than anyone else..

L