When I began my Freshman year at Florida Gulf Coast University, I suffered severe culture shock. I still continue to feel a bit out of place when I go to social functions with my peers, but those first few days in college were the most astounding. This is because even though I have lived in Florida my entire life, I was raised without many things other children my age took for granted, and was taught ideals that would be considered completely alien to a large sum of Americans. Here is a brief story of how I developed my world view and became the person I am today.
I was raised by Deadheads. My parents followed the Grateful Dead throughout the 1980's and 1990's. My parents loved them so much that I was named after a Grateful Dead song called "Tennessee Jed", which is my first and middle name. My parents have always been my best friends and have always tried to give me as much as they could despite their situation. My parents both suffered severe trauma at a very young age and due to this, they have been coping with mental illness. That, along with socioeconomic struggles, prevented them from getting a college degree. Despite this, they are both extremely intelligent people who have taught themselves many things through books and from others. They both always had an interest in medicine and so studied it along with other subjects such as botany, history, and astronomy. Their knowledge of botany has allowed us to grow many plants for food and medicine. Despite this knowledge, however, life wasn't easy. My dad became physically disabled when I was seven years old. I grew up with a computer, phone, car, cable television, dish washer, and we often went without utilities and food. But we were always a close family that got even bigger when my brother was born when I was eight years old. I grew up listening to the classics like the Beatles, Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan, Jethro Tull, Led Zeppelin, and of course the Grateful Dead. My parents were always open with me and treated me like an equal. My parents couldn't give me much in the realm of material goods, so they gave me their trust. Our household was almost completely communal as we had very little and so shared everything. Due to all these factors, I always had a very different perspective from those of my peers, though at the time I didn't realize it.
Since my parents and their friend treated me as an equal, I always felt like my teachers and other elders were more like peers than my actual peers by age. I always preferred talking to my teachers than to my fellow students. I never understood why adults would look down on me when I treated them with respect, as I believed they had no right to act in such a manner towards me. I learned a great amount about the regional culture of where I grew up (Southwest Florida) when I started college. I learned that people actually listened to pop music, which was very surprising to me. I just assumed everyone tolerated pop hits in public and went home to listen to better music, just as I did. Indeed, I was quite egocentric in many of my world views. It had a lot to do with the fact that I had very few friends growing up and spent the vast majority of my time at home reading books, playing video games (Once I got my first computer), and talking to my parents. I understood very little about social norms and the like when it came to those my age. I still struggle to understand certain modern concepts. One of these is how even though I've always loved science, I have a great amount of trouble using computers and other electronics. I was raised to question authority, think critically, and seek out peace, love, and understanding in all things. In school, I constantly got in debates because I spoke out against prejudice and other forms of harmful ignorance. I was bullied immensely for my odd disposition and habit of refuting things like extreme nationalism, racism, sexism, homophobia, and ethnocentrism. My teachers liked me, but the school's administration didn't since I often questioned their decisions. In my high school (Which I referred to as Hell and loath with a vengeance), the staff and administration would lie to and threaten students as means of coercion. As I read the code of conduct as well as the Constitution, I would act as a kind of lawyer for my peers and even once called out the vice principal for attempting to deny our right to peaceful assembly by banning us from gathering between classes.
When I got to college, I went from being in a small but warm home that always played good music and had thought provoking discussions to a cold, soulless habitat where I didn't recognize any music, barely understood what many of my peers said, and felt very alone. Things that so many of my fellow millennials seemed to think were important meant nothing to me, while things I held dear were scarcely considered by many others. It took me time to get used to checking my email every day and other tech-related activities. Also, to this day, I prefer washing dishes by hand as opposed to trying to use a dish washer. As time goes on, I discover more and more just how different I was from those around me. I had always tried so hard to relate to those my age with little success, and felt at a complete loss during my freshman year of college. I relished every opportunity to visit home, to recharge my spiritual batteries. I consider my discovery of my love of anthropology to be a God-send as it helped me better understand the culture I grew up in as well as the various cultural ideas I encountered on a daily basis. I am still learning new things all the time.
My objective by writing this article is twofold. On one hand I want to reveal more about my past so that those who read my work can better understand the perspective that my ideas come from. The other is to help everyone understand that many people you encounter will have very different customs from you, even if it isn't outwardly evident, and that patience and respect are key in appreciating such diversity.
