As children we were all exposed to the ideal of tolerance. Whether we learned it at school, at home or watching little dolls dancing and singing “It’s a small world after all,” somewhere along the line we all got the message.
And then came high school, the world of cliques, popularity wars and beauty contests. When we stepped onto university grounds, we left that other world behind … or so we thought.
But do we still have the divisions between us? From the Greeks to the geeks, the jocks to the Lab Rats, the rednecks to the hippies and the rich to the poor, everyone still has a stereotype for everyone else. No matter how medieval this may be, we continue holding these outdated images near and dear to our hearts.
Some of us try to overcome the hateful cloud of stereotyping. Others simply don’t care. However, in some small way we are all guilty of judging others-of not accepting what is different.
On my first day of class at McComas Hall, I sat next to a girl that I didn’t know. Later I discovered, much to my dismay, that she was a member of a sorority. Back then, I still believed in the legend of the snotty, self-absorbed sorority girl.
But the thing is, that girl talked to me, and not just talked to me, but befriended me as well. A year later, the two of us spent two weeks abroad together. Without her, I never would have had the courage to do that.
That day I learned how to accept and how to be accepted. Had I not gotten to know her, I know that somehow my life would be less.
That is what happens to us when we let a fear of differences direct our lives. We miss out on important life experiences. We become less than what we could have become. Every person we interact with adds something to our lives. And those who are different from us sometimes add the most.
The world we live in is not black and white with shades of gray. We are surrounded by color. We cannot limit ourselves to the people who are like us. Stereotypes will always be here. The trick is we have to learn to live our lives without them. We will always have those pictures in our minds because we have grown up in a world where they exist. But we can choose not to project those images onto others.
Growing up, people always told me not to judge a book by its cover. It sounds simple, and it’s so true. We don’t get to understand someone from looking at their outside. We lose getting to know who they really are.