Yesterday I had the distinct pleasure of getting to spend time with my OU Cousin, Sheila. I always enjoy talking to Sheila because, despite having grown up half a world away from me, she has a lot in common with me. It’s really fun having a good friend from another country with whom I can talk about classes and growing up and anything else on our minds. This time we were talking about families. I think families are one of the few areas where I actually overestimate the amount of cultural difference. As someone who enjoys world building, I tend to have extremely varied family structures throughout the cultures I create. However, in reality, families are pretty similar wherever we go. Sheila and I were talking about our siblings and what they want to do with their lives. I was able to brag about my sister and how beautiful and smart and talented she is and how much I want her to succeed, and Sheila got to join me in rooting for her. Then Sheila told me about her brother who’s trying to decide what he wants to do. I know that feeling, and I hope he can discover what it is he really wants. Our families have never met and might not even be able to communicate, but they’re not all that different, really.
I also had the opportunity the other day to talk to another Global Engagement Fellow about her experiences growing up. We’re actually from the same area of Texas, but she grew up in a multi-ethnic home. It’s fascinating what a little thing like that can change about the way one views the world. I had a bit of an odd childhood myself in that I was homeschooled for most of elementary school and then went to a small private school until I graduated. She and I spent two hours just comparing how our individual ways of thinking were shaped by our distinct childhood experiences. I believe that I benefitted a lot from the freedom to study whatever I wanted as a kid. I read whatever books caught my fancy and gained a solid foundation in reading, writing, and mathematics. She learned a second language, allowing her brain to develop two cultural contexts for the world. Our childhoods were so different, even though we could have met before college because of how close to one another we lived.
Comparing the two conversations, I’m struck by how much more my family seems to have had in common with Sheila’s than with my friend from Houston’s. I guess that just goes to show that families, like individuals, can find common ground with the most unlikely of people. We are more than just a product of our environment and culture, though that is a part of us. I’ve known Americans that I have nothing in common with, and yet Sheila and I can relate to one another in so many ways. More than anything else, this week has served to remind me that people are people, no matter how they look or where they come from. We’re all very much the same, while also being entirely unique. It’s incredible to me. I hope we as humans continue to learn this. I hope we stop seeing anyone as “alien.” What’s to make that person any better or worse than any other? Nothing. As my dad used to say when I was a kid, “I am not better than anyone else, but there is no one better than me.”
