Embracing "Multiculturedness"

Brittany - another "non-Indian" - and I getting ready for our dance.

Action #5

To start off, I'll just say that when I first read the description of action # 5 - "Volunteer...or get involved in a group comprised of people significantly different than you" -, I did not know what I would write about. After all, I come from a biracial family, spent the first years of my life in America and next 14 years in a third world country, interacting with local Bolivians and missionary kids from diverse racial and national backgrounds on a daily basis. Would this not imply that I was already a pretty well-rounded person, used to interacting with people different from myself? The more I thought about it, however, the more I came to realize that all I had described above was actually not different for me, but normal - thus, this international experience could not count for this blog! In fact, it was a much harder transition coming up to the USA and fitting in with fellow Americans - people my passport nationality tells me are my countrymen - than meeting and talking to my Chinese and Peruvian classmates in high school. Being at college itself, then, has been a experience in learning to deal with people coming from vastly different socio-economic, political, and religious backgrounds.

Of course, Goshen's Multicultural Affairs Office does a wonderful job in promoting unity and interaction amongst all the diverse students. I actually was able to attend the International Students' Orientation at the beginning of freshmen year, which brought me into contact with people from all over the world. Last semester, I got to participate in the International Students' Coffeehouse, performing an Indian dance. This was a wonderful experience. Not only was I able to learn a fun dance and a better glimpse of the beauty of the Indian culture, but I was also able to interact with people I would normally not talk to. Many different kinds of people participated in the dance - native Indians, Ethiopians, Indonesian, Americans, etc. It was quite an eclectic mix! At times, there was some conflict since certain people's work ethic or concept of being on time differed greatly from the other members of the group. However, we were able to pull together, learn the dance, and perform it. I loved getting to know some of the girls in the group better and I continue to talk with them to this day - had it not been for this opportunity to get involved in this dance, I doubt I would have ever interacted with them much.