White. White. White. Growing up, I could count the number of non-white persons in my town on one hand.

Straight. Straight. Straight. I rarely saw people of the same gender being involved romantically. The ones that were also kept it very discreet - no PDA, etc.

Cisgender. Cisgender. Cisgender. Until high school, I didn’t even know anything about the concept of “gender identity.” I’m still learning.

Republican. Republican. Republican. Saying the word “democrat” was taboo. I can’t even imagine what would have happened had someone openly identified as one.

Conservative. Conservative. Conservative. If you had liberal ideas, you were a socialist. You wanted criminals to roam the streets instead of being killed with the electric chair for all crimes. You were the enemy.

That was life in my small town, nestled on a lake in upstate New York - the real upstate, the Adirondacks. For some reason, I never aligned with those conservative ideologies spewed by my family, forced on us by the various churches in town (which we never attended), or even implanted in our heads by many of our teachers. I was the odd one. Fortunately and unfortunately.

I was lucky to grow up in that area though. I got many experiences being in such a rural area that I couldn’t have gotten anywhere else. It also gave me a perspective that many of my fellow college students don’t have.

At university, things are very different.

Racial diversity. Racial diversity. Racial diversity. Sometimes, I feel like the minority for being white.

Sexual orientation. Sexual orientation. Sexual orientation. I can no longer assume that everyone is straight. That’s not a bad thing, it was just an adjustment.

Gender identity. Gender identity. Gender identity. I have to be conscious of pronouns and I can no longer assume that one’s gender correlates with how they look. Also not a bad thing, just an adjustment.

Democrat. Democrat. Democrat. My ideas are not considered naive. They actually align with the majority on campus. Most of us voted Hillary Clinton and were furious with Donald Trump and the Electoral College.

Liberal. Liberal. Liberal. We are not the enemy. Socialism isn’t all bad or bad at all for some people. Not approving of the death penalty is accepted, if not the new normal.

You would think that this would all be great. In most instances it is. But as I said before, the perspective that I gained from growing up in such a conservative area also alienates me from my peers even though I agree with them most of the time because I understand the other side as well.

These two sides of my life have collided to form a new perspective for me.

I believe in the death penalty (conservative) but with strong restrictions (liberal).

I’m pro-life for myself (conservative) but believe that even though I could never have an abortion, others should be able to make that choice (liberal) with reasonable restrictions.

I’m an advocate for making immigration more legally accessible (liberal) but also with a strict vetting process (conservative).

My ideas align much more closely with the liberal population, but I still have conservative ideas that peek through. The bits of conservatism in me alienate me in many instances from my peers. I am often afraid of giving my perspective in class discussions because of those conservative ideas that are highly objected to by my peers.