I have always been someone who loved to learn about cultures that differ from mine. I've always felt that it is important to attempt to try and understand someone's background before falling into judgement and ignorance; especially in college. I never thought the day would come where I would dislike the fact I was surrounded by different people, especially in an academic setting. By different I mean without the Dominican, brown skin tone, the thick and wavy island hair, slight Spanish accent, and not from a neighborhood in the South Bronx. I realized my inner discomfort during RA training this summer.

During one of our sessions, our supervisor asked us to form a circle in the middle of the room. After this he introduced an activity that required only for us to be honest and be silent. He then proceeded to make a statement and asked us to move into the circle if it applied to us. He began with simple statements such as " Step in the circle if your from New York" and "Step in if you have a car" which was fine for me. As we proceeded further in the activity the questions got more personal.

The exercise immediately became less agreeable for me when the questions started reflecting our socio-economic background. Coming from a single parent household, I've had to deal with things that most people might not have to. I wouldn't have felt uncomfortable if I were back in high school with kids that might be going through the same thing as me. Here in college however, things are pretty diverse. As much as I appreciate this, there are some struggles that come with diversity.

There are times when I do feel embarrassed about certain things, or moments where I do not agree with the media on a particular subject as a result of my background. I am sure I am not the only one.

This is a common struggle for college kids all over. Its one of those issues that is not exactly due to an outside aggressor, more just our own uncertainty, fear of rejection and a little bit of ignorance. The danger with this is that it can lead to students giving each other stereotypes, others might isolate themselves from people of a certain ethnic group because "I am not hispanic enough" or "I am not white, so we must not have anything in common". These types of thoughts are the ones that keep us all in our "social bubbles" We see the same things, experience the same culture and in the end we fail to learn how to live in the real world among different types of people. We then fail to tolerate those outside ideals and lifestyles.

Going back to my RA training, our group sat down and discussed how we all felt after the activity. Most of us felt a bit uncomfortable but were comforted by the fact that they weren't entering the circle alone. For introverts such as myself, I found no console regardless (LOL). It was after everyone opened up and actually were curious in a way that told me "I want to get to know your background because I want to get to know you". That was the moment that I realized that I shouldn't be ashamed of my culture nor where I come from. It simply takes us asking questions (respectively of course) to unravel a new friendship and understanding.