• Column

    how experiencing other cultures changed me

    I grew up in the rural Ohio countryside where the nearest store was at least thirty minutes away and I was surrounded by five acres of woods. Living in my small 600 sq. ft. home, there were only a family of other Caucasians living across the road. Everyone at my elementary school was also Caucasian except for the one or two African American and Asian kids, but for the most part I had no experience with any other culture other than my own – white. My parents, uncultured, didn’t have anything to contribute to this obvious challenge. Therefore, until I went to college, I had the same image of the…