As a graduate student and someone who genuinely loves education, learning is extremely important to me. In fact, learning is an integral part of human development that isn’t completed in a classroom or when you successfully graduate with a bachelor’s degree; learning is a lifelong process that shapes and molds beliefs, actions, and lifestyles. It can be used to better the world around us and generate mutual understanding, create dynamic solutions to the world’s problems, and produce better opportunities for advancement.

However, learning is stunted when instead of pushing boundaries and seeking common ground, we surround ourselves with individuals who share our exact same worldview and engage with polarizing and exclusive mentalities. In other words, our ability to dynamically learn about society and other people is limited when we choose to only surround ourselves with familiar ideas.

In a culture that values comfort and thrives off of “us vs. them” mentalities, mutual understanding is becoming more difficult to achieve. This often leads to misunderstanding, prejudice, and a simplification of opposing viewpoints. The problem with this is that these binaries (us vs. them, self vs. other, etc.) are often false.

The world isn’t really so black and white, society isn’t simple or easy to understand, and people aren’t always either right or wrong. Our world and cultures are complex, dynamic, and constantly changing. However, when we try to simplify society, place people in boxes, rely on “common sense” politics, or classify ideas as either “all right” or “all wrong,” we are really doing ourselves a great disservice. Instead of constantly learning, we are consenting to the illusion that we have it all figured out.

Indeed, in order to truly learn, we must always shift our perspectives, question our conclusions, and recognize both our biases and preconceptions.

Let me clarify this, though. What I am not saying is that there is no absolute truth or that there are no attainable answers to the questions that we ask. Regardless of this, even absolute truth can be discovered in unexpected places. If we only focus on comparing ideas and people to what we think we already know, we will miss out on these moments of inspiration and enlightenment. In order to genuinely engage with other mentalities, we have to fundamentally shift the way that we think.

One of the best methods of truly gaining perspective and growing in mutual understanding is through experiential learning. Because learning is often best achieved through direct experience and interaction with others whose opinions are totally different from our own, it’s important that our goals in human relationships rely on an honest attempt to learn and grow from other people. Maybe if we stopped trying to convince everyone that our opinions are the only correct answers, and instead strived to understand each other, our most fulfilling and important friendships would be with the people that we actually disagree with the most.

So instead of surrounding yourself with people who are similar to you and who believe all the same things as you do, branch out! Make friends with people who can help you understand something new and provide an interesting perspective that you’ve never considered before! The world is bigger than your political ideas, your home state, and your opinions. So try experiencing it more through the eyes of another person, and in the process, you’ll learn a lot more about yourself too.