Finding who I am in this melting pot
For this blog, I'll loosely define diversity as a difference in lifestyle, beliefs, and customs, influenced by the environment and culture people are raised in. With this definition, Washington DC is certainly a diverse place. Looking around, I feel like almost any type of person could find their place in DC. I'm so accustomed to walking around and seeing people of all different ethnic and social backgrounds; I'm really going to miss this when I return to Allegheny in the spring.
Living in this diverse environment, one of the biggest things I've learned about myself is that I prefer this type of environment over a more homogeneous one. I like knowing I'm surrounded by people with who live differently, who care about different causes, who have grown up in places so foreign to what I'm used to. It challenges me and the beliefs I've grown up with, and I think that's a really good thing. It's made me understand better why I am the way I am, and why I feel so strongly about certain issues and events going on the world today. It's helped me to be more open to listening to others' point of view, instead of being stuck on certain assumptions or prejudices. Overall, this semester has forced me to examine myself a lot and has made me learn to adjust to the many different environments I've been exposed to in both DC and the Balkans.