Up until recently, I had spent my whole life in the San Francisco Bay Area which is arguably one of the most liberal cities in the nation right now.

But after living in Las Vegas for about half a year, I can see that my hometown rarely exposed me to the multi-faceted real world. I had been stuck in a bubble my whole life and, coming into college, I didn't know how to handle opinions from the "other side."

Tensions were pretty high, mostly due to the presidential campaign of last year, and I always dreaded conversations with people whose opinions were the opposite of mine. I have never been a very aggressive person when it came to politics. I always believed in respecting everyone's opinions, but some of the things suggested by the election made me mad and unwilling to listen.

But as the road to the election became shorter and shorter, I figured there is no sense in disregarding others' opinions since they are obviously seeing something I don't. So I started listening.

I was able to hold prolonged conversations about politics with several people whose views differed from mine. I could get my own opinions in and be respectfully listened to.

I still didn't agree with many things, since I felt a lot of the arguments were ad hominem and lacked logical and statistical backing, but I was able to form a reason as to why I lean the way I do. It wasn't "Oh, I'm liberal" or "That's just how I was raised," it's more along the lines of "I don't agree with what they say and they do not convince me that they are a good candidate."

It's sort of a paradox: sometimes stepping down from your position and listening to other perspectives can strengthen your original opinions. But I found it to be full of truth from firsthand experience. Being caught up in a bubble for such a long time made me look at things in a black-and-white frame. I came to a city that was really a kaleidoscope of opinions I was never exposed to. Coming to Las Vegas and shifting my focus has helped me become a better listener and a more tolerant person when it comes to political parties and opinions.