Acceptance

Well, today's assignment for our blogs was to speak with another classmate, with whom we have not previously spoken, and to attempt to discover differences between ourselves and the other person. Kimberly and I spoke for a while, and I hate to say it, but no severe differences popped up! However, here is what I learned about Kimberly, and I will see if perhaps there are differences beneath the surface. I learned from our conversation that Kimberly is 22 years old, although says that she keeps referring to herself as being 23 by mistake. Funnily enough, I did the same thing for months prior to my 25th birthday. I know that for me, I was just so shocked that my 25th birthday was looming that everytime my age came up I couldn't get the number 25... 25... 25... out of my head. It finally came last week, and guess what... I feel older.
I also learned that Kimberly is from a small town called Groesbeck, and that she was brought up in a Southern Baptist household. I was raised in a (quazi) Catholic household. However, due to exposure to other things, I have become more eclectic in my religious philosophies, and Kimberly seemed to share the same inclination. She is still conservative in some respects while liberal in others, and believes in the need for personal growth and seemed to have an aversion to blind obedience. I have to say, I agree. We didn't go into great detail about particular issues, but we both agreed that our political affiliations were issue based.
Kimberly also told me that she plans to move to New York after graduation to experience a "more wordly and open-minded" atmosphere. Again, funnily enough, years ago when I was a photography major, New York had been my big dream as well. I thought that I would move there and take my very best shot at becoming a photographer for the Rolling Stone office. I think that there is something beautiful about New York and it's reputation for having such a fast paced, cut throat environment. Even moving there and failing seems romantic.
Because we had limited time to discuss things, I can only identify so much. I know that Kimberly and I, at the least, share simular veiws on how we frame our beliefs, i.e. openmindedness, a lack of blind obedience to, or a lack of wholly identifying with, any religious or political organization. As for differences, she was raised in a small town and brought to a larger city in pursuit of education. I was raised in a suburb of a big city and found my way to a smaller town in pursuit of education. She was raised in a Southern Baptist house, and I was raised in a Catholic house. However, again, due to exposure to other ideas we both became eclectic in our beliefs. I do have to say, however, that my upbringing did not really include strict Catholocism. My mother was raised in an Irish Catholic household, and we attended catholic church, but those veiws were never pushed on me.
During class today, one woman was talking about how exposure to others who are different than ourselves contributes to tolerance, and I think that this is a very true statement. We are all college students, and it doesn't take more than one or two anthropology classes to drill into your head the idea that most of what you take to be true is culturally and societally created. Once you realize this, it makes discriminating negatively between individuals a little pointless.