My parents are from Manchester, England. As Europeans they grew up accessible to traveling to countries easily and did trips over weekends and long vacations. However, as my siblings and I grew up in America it was a little harder for us to just jump on a plane for a weekend trip to a different country. My parents were not deterred by the fact that we lived far from other countries. It was important to them for us to learn from experience about different cultures rather than sitting in a classroom and being told about it.
As Europeans it was normal to travel the world. However, in America it was not normal when we were growing. In our community, people didn’t understand why we would want to leave and visit another country; they would ask my parents “Why would do that to the kids?” As my traveling experience expanded the taunting started for me: “Hey! Alien, why don’t you go back to where you came from” or “Nobody asked you alien.” I remember getting so mad at them because I was one of them, an American who was simply brought up by European parents.
During my travels so far, I’ve learned a lot from different cultures: food, religion, politics, history, the arts and more! I think the number one lesson I’ve learned so far is compassion for the others, to understand a person’s opinion, and their values, and let them voice it even though you might disagree with it. As Dr. Seuss has said “A person’s a person no matter how small.”
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