Ever since my Indian neighbor, Anuja, who has been my friend since I was five, I have grown up surrounding myself with those of different races. Living in a suburb where everything and everyone looks the same, I always flocked to people with different cultures, traditions, and viewpoints than I. This environment has incubated my dreams to scour the globe in search of new experiences and interesting people, especially when it comes to my college choices. Applying to colleges out of state in far away cities such as Boston and California will be the perfect juxtaposition to the all-white, small town surroundings I have grown to loathe. My ethnic smorgasbord of Asian, Kyrgyz and Czech friends also taught me to be tolerant and empathize to those who might be seen as different or outcasts. These kinds of qualities are vital in our beautifully, presently shrinking world, where one can be immersed in an entirely different perspective in a matter of flight hours or clicks of a mouse. No matter what background a person possesses, we are all human and can empathize with each other.
This makes me personally unique because very few who are considered to be the typical white suburban girl become interested and knowledgeable in so many different cultures as I have become. Whenever I would attend Hindi temple or an African American church ceremony, I was always questioned by others about my interests or permission to attend such functions or even be accepted into that group. This has taught me especially to not view diversity as something which is visible with the eyes or tangible for only one group, but something which is exhibited by everyone in their own way. It does not separate us, but brings us all together. It is only through getting to know different cultures that we can identify true diversity and live an accepting, embracing lifestyle.
It is through this attitude and accepting environment that I have become comfortable with myself and my ability to identify as an asexual, which some would consider to be diverse. I have never sought out to have a sexual relationship, or any type of relationship with either of the genders. My brain cannot seem to see other people as sexual objects, only as people with backgrounds, thoughts, and interesting stories to share. I've performed sexual acts with people and am automatically disgusted and uninterested in the activity. I explain it as having no sort of sex drive or interest in forming a sexual bond with another human. My whole life, I always felt the typical feelings of someone whose identity in modern society; weird, unusual, disgusting, and sometimes diseased. I have told very few people because it has not reached mainstream society as a real thing; even the LGTQ community find asexuals abnormal.I do not mind keeping it to myself because personally, it should not matter to people who I do or do not want to have sex with, and that is true for debates surrounding sexual orientation.
All in all, I would summarize that my values of unconditional acceptance, sincere interest, and constant embrace of diversity based on my personal diversity (or lack of in some eyes)contributes greatly to this University's current attempts of embracing diversity in such a prominently white majority community. I applaud and personally enjoy the university's successful attempts and will continue to involve myself in the programs run to educate those about diverse cultures. Can't wait for Taste of Ohio!!!
Even though I am not very religious, I always explain this term in the biblical story of the poor woman who gave less than a penny to charity, which was all she had, while the rich sultan gave gold, but only a fraction of his fortune. In my eyes, true philanthropy is not the quantity you give to others, but the quality. While some people may donate thousands of dollars to homeless shelters, have they ever actually gone into the homeless shelter to see what it's like? True philanthropy is stepping off your mindset of superiority to confront those who are in need and realizing that they are just like you. Human compassion and understanding is better than any amount of money to someone who is truly destitute.
When growing up, one goes from a stage of innocent ignorant child, to a confused complicated adolescent. During this awkward time, many lessons are learned and usually things which were always there in the open suddenly appear in a new light. My biggest discovery was not boys, drugs, or what my parents did together at night; I discovered that I was overweight, a term and quality which would come to define my outside but ultimately evolve my inside.
Just like any sixth grader, coming to middle school was a horribly frightening experience, everything was new and I had many questions. One of my biggest was "How come I don't look like the other kids?" In seventh grade, guys' mouths got bigger along with their heights, and they were supplied with endless amount of immaturity. This equaled some pretty annoying and uncontrollably chauvinistic counterparts. To make a long story short, I was bullied enough to make me have my coming of age moment at twelve years old.
During one particularly excruciatingly tormenting day, I could not take anymore and cried right there in the middle of class, something I swore I would never do. Eyes blood shot, nose running and my cherry-red face dampened, I asked my teacher to go to the bathroom, and guess what she did, nothing. She gave me the pass and I was on my merry way. Looking in the bathroom mirror, I realized I need a change and no one was going to help me.
In seventh the innocent, sweet, sixth grader in me was demolished into the blunt, headstrong, independent woman I am today. Of course I'm thankful for it now, but at the time, it was excruciating. I despised the feeling of walking around school feeling so ostracized as my male peers teased me with words such as fat, ugly, and my favorite, walrus. Yes, my nickname in middle school was walrus, so flattering for a girl right? I hated it so much, that on that day I decided to rebel, because if one is not changing on the inside, why would anything change on the outside?
This pivotal moment in my life is when I developed some of my most admirable skills.To lose weight, I had to be determined, persistent, stubborn, and strong willed; that is the only way to deny that second cookie or force one's legs to keep running on that treadmill. If anyone asks what my secret was, I simply told them it was all mental, which it is just like everything in life. To accomplish something so difficult and long-winded, I needed a pretty big motivator to force my brain to tell my body to obey. My motivator was that feeling that every person who has ever been overweight has had to deal with, abnormality.
Since then, it has taken me four years, thirty-seven pounds (which is quite a bit for someone who is 5'3"), and orthodontics, but I'm finally fully comfortable with myself and more importantly, proud of how it changed me, not just physically, but mentally. Looking back now, I can see their torment was a blessing in disguise. While all other seventeen year old girls get their self esteem from their boyfriends, food, makeup etc. I derive it from me, myself and I. This experience has given me my never-give-up-anything-is-possible attitude which has helped and will continue to help me accomplish all my dreams throughout my life.
Due to it's personal nature, I do not tell many my story, however, those who have heard it can see how it has molded me into the person I am today. Like many things, being born into adversity gives the best in us a chance to fight and come out even better. Thanks to my weight loss journey, I now know how to set a goal, make a plan, and stick to my guns. I also tell this story to inform those who are currently going through such a stage, that they are not alone and time changes everything. Middle school does not last forever and most come out the other side eventually full of knowledge, strength, and a vision of the type of person they wish to become. I did. It also molded me into the accepting and philanthropic person I am today, which I will most assuredly will take into my future life.
With this knowledge and abundantly unending interest in nutrition and the food system, I hope to attend Tuft's School of Nutritional Science and Policy. They do great work in solving the agriculture and food processes in countries where people are dying of lack of food, not overabundance. I would say my experience left me a bit bitter towards the corrupted American food system, but also determined to change it. Malnutrition is a poor man’s disease, for if people have money, they can usually afford all the foods they need to be healthy. It is absolutely disgusting to think that while other children are dying from Rickets and protein-energy deficiencies, America’s children are suffering from hypertension and onset Type 2 diabetes. If America and the world do not act quickly enough, all future generations will be suffering from one of these extremes. That's what I will be trying to prevent, and hopefully succeeding if I get the means and funds to do it. My life's purpose would be fulfilled if I could solve world hunger.
I didn't want to lose these so I put them here. I've been having writing inspiration lately so I was excited to do it!