My Interest In Multicultural Friendship
University of Connecticut would increase my cultural perspective in a way not offered by urban Upstate New Haven. Although my school shows some socioeconomic diversity, the ethnic and cultural backgrounds of our community is almost uniform.
I’m enthusiastic to meet and make friends with students from different cultures whose societies are completely different but whose learning ambitions are the same. Our lives are usually separated by thousands of miles and countless cultural contrasts, yet in the end, we are committed to the same goals of higher education and advanced knowledge.
A friend that I have been fascinated by computers from an early age, just as I was. As young adventurous student, he performed hacks and skillful cyber-attacks that revealed the ways of the world to him through computer. The technology reaches everyone without considering the differences between the peoples. The determination my friend puts in his goal to achieve his full potential is the same concepts as those which I write in English. The sun he sees, the star around which the gears of our solar system turn, is the same sun I see oceans away. Thus, they unveil to both of us universal truths. We can understand the same concepts and ideas before knowing a single word of each other’s language. Technology connects us intrinsic, so our curiosity generates many similar questions despite the great contrasts daily lives.
Back at home, my friend might live in a modest house of third world country. Every morning he travels by bicycle to his school and brings his books into a leather wallet that he transmits to his father. He studies cybersecurity, Italian, American literature, and the Western Culture. After school, he returns home to help his mother prepare rice and lamb for dinner. He sits down for dinner with his cybersecurity book in hand, but his mother quickly scolds him for bringing his studies to the family. She assures him, “You’ll have time for that later,” while he reluctantly he puts the book in his bag. Regardless of our different traditions, beliefs, and languages, my friend and I must both submit ourselves to the will of mom.
My friend could have taught me some words of Italian, tell stories of visits to his aunt’s village, or describe hikes in the Sangay. I share with him an insider’s perspective on Western pop culture, I explain the Common Core and the standardized test system and demystify the meaning of “the American Dream.” We may not listen to the same music, eat similar food, or watch the same holidays, but our lives run parallel at many places. The differences between us are palpable, but even so, they are overcome by our intrinsic individuality. The similarities allow us to really understand each other as people. As my friendships grow, the discovery of our parallels will broaden each of our understandings.
