Over Labor Day weekend, I had the opportunity to go to the Big Dawgs Leadership Summit as one of the representatives for The Reflector. The Big Dawgs are the leaders of the most prominent and impactful student organizations at Mississippi State University.
While we were there, we heard a lot about how to better reach out to the diverse demographics at MSU.
Then, a representative for the Student Veteran’s Association, Daniel Wells, who served in the United States Air Force for six years, stood up to say something that silenced the room.
Wells told us MSU’s “diversity” is used as a bragging right when it really should not be a word used flippantly.
Diversity means nothing until we bridge the gap and get to know one another.
While diversity is a great thing, it does nothing for us unless we act on it for ourselves. Whatever your political ideology is, however you interpret top news stories and scandals, we can all agree: something is wrong in America.
There is too much unrest, injustice and prejudice to be ignored. People are constantly saying we have come a long way as a country, and sometimes they may add there is still further we have to go. 
However, while we may have come a long way, most people do not realize just how close our past looms in the rear view mirror.
According to Encyclopedia Britannica, Ruby Bridges was the first African American to attend a white school in the South. Her first day at the segregated elementary school was in 1960.
Today, she is only 63 years old. Segregation is not such an old phenomenon.
How are we supposed to tackle something like diversity when it is on such a large scale? After all, millennials are constantly being told we are ruining America and society.
However, we really hold the power in our hands. We may not be able to afford a house, but we can change the way people feel.
In order to do this, we all have to start taking steps to better ourselves.
One of the best ways to become a better person is by meeting more people—people completely different from you.
Only knowing cookie-cutter versions of yourself will never help you grow. It will never help you see different perspectives and walks of life.
Talk to someone who celebrates a different religion—you do not have to agree with it, but it is so important for you to understand it and respect their right to believe in something.
Talk to someone with a different economic status than yours, a different race or a different ethnicity. Get to know people and imagine yourself in their places. Imagine what it took them to get to where they are now.
If we continue to gravitate toward ourselves, we will never learn or grow. Making a difference will not be easy. You will be uncomfortable at times, and you will disagree with cultures and viewpoints, but if we are in a constant state of comfort, we will never change.
Instead of judging, we need to start trying to understand people.