H&S Handout #2

I grew up in a place where diversity was celebrated. Living at an American International School in a foreign country will do that. There were people from all walks of life, every sort of ethnicity and race, from all different backgrounds. I didn't know that living in such a diverse environment was different. I ran and played with children from all around the world.

My closest friends were from Israel, America, England and Nigeria at the time. I didn't see anything different between us; we were all just little five and six year olds that wanted to play and learn our numbers and letters.

So what if Faisal had an Israeli Pokemon tape or Ademide hated it when I blew raspberries at him? I never questioned why we were all so different.

My family moved back to Washington State right before I started second grade. I was sad that I was leaving all my friends behind in Africa, but was excited to make new ones.
My mom told me that after my first day at an American school, I said that there were 'too many white people'.

Maybe it explains why I immediately latched onto people that were different form the rest. An oriental girl named May whose relatives were from somewhere in Asia, and Oluwadamilola, or Dami for short, whose parents were both native to Nigeria, my previous home of five years.

It wasn't long before I finally began to notice and finally began to see that, even though I've been all over the world and have seen all sorts of people, not many people my age or even older have had the same experience as I did.
I had lost my ability over the years to see beyond just the outside of people, and look deep into them.

Humans are not born judgmental of others, but are raised to see people in a certain light.
I didn't become overly conscious of other people and their differences until I was in an environment were everyone was the same.

It has only been recently since I've realized that everyone is different. It wasn't until I moved to Seattle and lived with so many different people that it helped to me to remember the lessons I've learned overseas. I learned and grew up with the lesson that people are people, not anything else.

It doesn't matter what your skin color is, what your sexuality is or anything else.
We are all humans.