I grew up in a small, rural town. My neighbors to my left were cows, and my neighbors to the right were about 750 apple trees. I was white, and poor, and everyone else I knew was white and poor. I went to the only high school within 30 miles with about 60 other students who looked just like me.
But then, I went to undergrad.
I experienced for the first time in my life a group of people
with different views than mine. I noticed that people had different accents, different styles, and thought about issues differently. It wasn’t a huge school, either, being one of the SUNY schools. I’m so grateful I got to experience living, working, and studying with people of different backgrounds, as I was on track to be the stereotypical rural man, viewing anything other than my limited experience as strange and wrong.
Let me give a specific example. My first year at school, I was a communications major (before switching to education). I was involved in a group project for my introduction to communications class in which I had to discuss the cultural implications of communication. I, being isolated in my hometown, was confused at the assignment. What do you mean the cultural implications of communication? Everyone communicates the same way, except for maybe the language they use? However, I was paired with a culturally diverse group of people, and I learned what it meant to communicate in their cultures. I learned how ethnicity plays a role in how younger and older people talk to one another. I learned how different cultures view folks outside their own. I learned that my way of communication wasn’t the only, and it probably wasn’t even the best. My mind was blown! As I continued through my educational journey, I had more and more experiences like this one. When I transferred my major to education, my network of teacher candidates gave me excellent insights that I would not have thought of had I not gone to college.
GreggU. (2020a, October 11). Cultural Communication [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBYD09CfcIg&feature=youtu.be
I’m grateful for the education that I received when I went to school, but I’m almost more grateful for the experiences I had learning, working, and laughing with other unlike-minded folks along the way. I sometimes wonder what my life would be like if I didn’t study and live at school during undergrad.
Hi Ayden,
I found your story very interesting, I was in pretty much the exact opposite situation when I went to college. I live just outside NYC so I understood that different groups of people have different cultures, but I did not understand that not everyone gets the same privileges automatically. If you live in Westchester County you're kind of automatically well off, property here is insanely expensive. Before going away to school I had only interacted with other people in the same situation as me. We didn't think we were well off though, within our frame of reference we were average. As you may have guessed, this did not make me the most tolerable person.
I went to school at SUNY Oswego, moving there was a huge culture shock for me. It was very strange to live in a small-ish town, and it was even stranger to realize that my experiences were not universal. I had started my adult life with a huge advantage over most other people. I went to a good high school, my parents were college educated and were able to guide me through college applications, I didn't need to have a job in high school, and I had access to tutors as I needed them. This realization did a lot for my levels of empathy and understanding. It's a lot harder to judge others when you realize that they did not get the same assistance you did.
Did you find that moving away to school made you a better person? Because I would definitely be insufferable if I hadn't done it.