Everyone is part of a culture.
To be part of a culture, you must first immerse yourself in that culture and come to terms that this culture is one that you identify with. College will allow you to accomplish this, among many things. It will give rise to many opportunities. It’s a time to explore new venues, new friends, and new situations. You can do whatever you want (to an extent). No one is there to put limits on the choices you make or the things you do (again, to an extent). At the end, this plethora of opportunities will bring you closer and closer to your identified group.
Where do we begin to find our group, however? There is really, no right way to do this. There is no direct path or set of guidelines to follow. Nonetheless, you should always begin by embracing different cultures. These different cultures can come in the forms of different ethnic identities, different sexual orientations, different religious views, or different hobbies. The key here is that we allow ourselves to view our differences as opportunities to become one community of individuals, united by similar traits, experiences, or backgrounds.
We have, in recent years, rapidly evolved into a more globalized community. Thanks to technological advances—particularly in terms of social media and international networking—we have grown to become a more accepting and diverse community (with the exception being certain individuals in power who want to limit diversity in our country). Almost everywhere you go, there is accessibility to other cultures. Whether you are in the mall shopping or in the park walking by, you will notice people with different backgrounds, mannerisms, and customs. It is moments like these that should prompt us to take a step back from our own lives and realize the importance of exploring different cultures.
Instead of spending the day on your computer screen, researching the history of X, Y, Z, you should attempt to explore the history of X, Y, Z in vivo. Not only will you understand the culture in a more personal way, you will also be able to see the remnants of that historical past. Instead of, for example, struggling through an assigned paper about the consequences of World War II because you do not have much interest in this topic, you can now (considering you are in a college that strives to be diverse) search for meaningful friendships that will ultimately help you better understand the effects of WWII in other countries.
These opportunities are endless, especially in a college campus. We simply ought to be more mindful of our lack of awareness to cultures outside of our own. After we acknowledge this, we will be more capable of understanding differences between our cultures. We will be able to finally see history as it presents itself in our current society. Lastly, we will be able to find that our differences are not a meant to separate but rather to unite our fast-growing global village.
