Essay Example on My Childhood Experience: Determining My Future

I have always been a firm believer in the need to learn things from the past, and subsequently using them to define my future. My life is entirely dominated and defined by the experiences that I had during my childhood. More specifically, the experience that I had at the age of 10 tremendously defined who I am today. Ideally, this was a situation that was more or like discrimination based upon whom I was. I am glad that through that experience, I got to understand some of the deeply entrenched societal stereotypes that people of color faced, and have continued to face.

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My mother and I had visited the state of Utah for a family vacation. We had to travel from Wisconsin, where we were living at that time. Growing as a young girl, I loved enjoying the outdoor picnic and adventure due to my natural love for the environment. On this day, we arrived in Utah late at night and forced to spend the night at the hotel. The following day, we woke up in the morning to prepare for the tour in the national park that is located a few distances from the place. This was a five-star hotel and one of its kind. We were served all sorts of delicious food and snacks. I liked everything about the place, including how the attendants attended and responded to all our needs. The hotel had a big indoor swimming pool. Although it was not the first time for me to swim, it was my first time using an indoor hot pool. As we began the process of entering the pool, I heard one of the white female attendants telling the other attendants that we were not supposed to use the pool. She said, “But why do you allow them to filthy bodies into our waters? No, they should not”. The attendant who was being addressed came running to us quickly as instructed by the woman. So we decided to go out of the pool to observe the situation as things unmasked.

Surpassingly, all these things happened despite my mother meeting all the costs as required by the hotel. In the midst of these happenings, another male attendant came rushing towards us and asked what had happened. He was utterly sorry and promised to address that issue through the management. He gave us the go-ahead to use the pool as other customers and even ahead to provide us with the compensation that had happened. We also spent a whole week at the hotel, as opposed to the four days as earlier planned. I was deeply impressed by how the male attendant addressed this issue and made us feel equal just like others, despite being people of color.

Conclusion

One major conclusion from this experience is that discrimination based on the color is real and happens to most people. However, the majority of people do not discriminate. This experience has tremendously shaped life in terms of how I relate, speak, and interact with my Whites, Asians, and Hispanic colleagues. I value cultural diversity. I have come to learn that instead of supporting the wholesale segregation and bigotry of the past, most people, including the white supremacists, are willing to change their attitudes towards the entire issue of discrimination. The majority of them have also recognized the mistakes they did in the past and were ready to correct them. A police officer in Florida recently stopped me and asked me, “How are they treating you down there?” He was asking about my experience at McDonald’s. When I told him that I had no complaints, he replied, “That’s exceedingly awesome. We’re trying hard”. The interaction with this police officer proved to me once again that there are fundamentals of goodness in all people, irrespective of the racial background and historical origin. Ideally, the warmth and decency do not belong to any given community or race.

I can also not pretend that it is so easy to accept everyone. This is based on the fact that my view, perception, and faith has been shaken several times through the cruelty and heedlessness of some people. However, human dignity among the people has never failed to win in the situation whenever it emerged to a showdown. This is the reason why I have consistent faith in faith for united humanity in the future. For the better part of my life in school, I have always tried much to relate effectively with my classmates who have a different ethnic background from mine. Not only has this enhanced our classmate relationship, but it also shaped our interaction outside the classroom. Each of us is unique and special in our ways. This philosophy has not only allowed me to embrace cultural diversity but also assist my peers whenever my help is needed.

Further, I have also related the recent events related to the “Black Lives Matter” movement to the experience that I had at a young age. Although the grievances, songs, and chants have been specifically directed towards fighting for the rights of the black people, nearly all individuals from all the races, including the whites have tremendously participated. Discrimination based on the color of an individual is not natural or inherent, but an element that develops within individuals because of the environmental factors, which includes the kind of people they interact with. I am dreaming of a time when everybody will be able to seat on the same table despite their colors of their skins, not forgetting other factors such as religions and culture. This is what defines who I am.