By Jack Barker
My experience in India so far has brought me a change in personal views. When I first came to India, I didn’t know what to expect honestly. I felt like I was knowledgeable about many things, but the people in India and their culture was not one. I was certainly pretty curious about what I would learn about the people and the way they acted because of religion. These days the U.S. and the main news corporations often depict the people of other religions, specifically the Muslims, as heartless people who hate everything. I knew this was wrong, but I didn’t know how wrong the statement was. I found out that the statement couldn’t be farther from the truth.
As I have grown up on the Eastern shore of Virginia, a lot of my thoughts have been twisted a little bit. My mom was very cultured so I had always had her for good guidance, but still, she couldn’t stop a lot of close-minded people from also influencing me. When I first came to India I was scared that the people would hate Americans, and I would be scowled at as I walked down the street. I was wrong; the people looked at me no differently than anyone else. Now, I’m laughing because of the fact that I was scared of people that were different than me.
This had me thinking about life and cultures of the whole world. Last night we watched the sunset and the moonrise at the same time over the Bay of Bengal. It was beautiful, and I thought about people and how they see the sunset and moonrise just like I do. Maybe if some people would see the small things about everyone they wouldn’t be so quick to judge, this includes me. All people eat, breath, sleep and see the sunset just like me. I have learned if you keep an open mind most people will be different than what you expected.
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