College is frustrating. Point blank. I don't care who you are or how good of a student you are, at some point during your college career you are going to make a noise so inhuman in an attempt to express your frustrations. Your roommate will probably yell, "Me too!" from their room across the hall. I could complain about every aspect of college, but for now, I'll stick to one: constant learning about diversity.

Before you get mad at me for saying that, understand where I'm coming from. I was raised in a household that welcomed everyone and was understanding of everyone's backgrounds and differences. My mother has taught a variety of different programs throughout my life, including special education programs and ESL programs. I've spent my time volunteering for programs that help young mothers, put together fundraisers for a little boy needing a kidney transplant, attended a school that had students representing over 45 nations. I've lived on halls with girls from South Korea, girls whose mothers are from Columbia, German girls, black girls, white girls and everything in between. I'm frustrated because I've learned as much as I can about diversity in my short time. I know I have more to learn, and I'm completely open to doing so. What I'm not open to is the elementary level diversity we're being taught.

I know a lot of people come to college from small towns where there is little to no diversity. I know that for many people, college is the first time they get to experience any kind of diversity, and that's fine. I don't know, however, why I have to sit in a lecture hall and listen to a girl get offended that her 'beliefs are being threatened,' because she was shown a statistic that black men are more likely to get arrested and serve time in prison than white men (this actually happened).

I'm not trying to call out universities here. I think what they're teaching is absolutely necessary for those who were not fortunate enough to be taught open-mindedness. I'm calling on students everywhere. I want to see the kind of free thinking and questioning I see from the people to whom I've grown close. They're willing to go the extra mile to understand someone else's point of view and not to criticize their college for 'challenging their beliefs.' I want students to come to college ready to learn about other cultures, other people, other beliefs. I want students to be able to challenge their own ideas and grow in the process. Most of all, I want students to stop needing to be spoon fed the idea that everyone matters no matter their race, gender, sexual orientation or their background and just accept it already. I want to be able to move on from this superficial explanation of diversity that we're being taught and to learn something substantial about those different from myself. Students: it's time to grow up.