Reflective Essay: Gender Differences
The world around me is huge and intricate, and with each experience I become more and more aware of just how complex it is. The more I see and learn, the more I begin to ask questions. One experience in particular led me to ask a multitude of questions about not only who I am, but who others are and how our beliefs and choices shape us into who we become. When I was sixteen, I attended to a pre-college summer program for three weeks. When I arrived, I had a dorm room, a roommate, and seventy-nine strangers to become acquainted with. We had all come for the same general reasons – we wanted to learn more, experience more, and become at least slightly prepared for what college might be like. We attended classes and learned about new topics, but
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They were people who were present at church every Sunday and had the same small-town values and opinions as I did. But I also developed friendships with individuals who were unlike any others I had ever met formerly. These people had very different beliefs, opinions, everything. Their whole lives seemed like foreign countries I had yet to explore. Previously, I had only heard about gender neutral people on television and atheists in stories. However, here, that was not the case. My suite-mate identified as gender neutral, and I discovered that one of my dearest friends didn’t believe in God. These peculiar new lifestyles of the people I had become so close to made me question circumstances I had not previously considered. How did I feel about being friends with people whose beliefs differed with my own? Was being “different” something to be looked down upon? Did we need to change ourselves to fit each other’s lifestyles? I found myself pondering these questions time and time again. I consulted friends from home, hoping for outside perspectives on the situation. I eagerly called my mother, knowing that she would give me advice that can only come from experience. However, ultimately, it was up to me to decide what I wanted to believe and how I would act on
They were people who were present at church every Sunday and had the same small-town values and opinions as I did. But I also developed friendships with individuals who were unlike any others I had ever met formerly. These people had very different beliefs, opinions, everything. Their whole lives seemed like foreign countries I had yet to explore. Previously, I had only heard about gender neutral people on television and atheists in stories. However, here, that was not the case. My suite-mate identified as gender neutral, and I discovered that one of my dearest friends didn’t believe in God. These peculiar new lifestyles of the people I had become so close to made me question circumstances I had not previously considered. How did I feel about being friends with people whose beliefs differed with my own? Was being “different” something to be looked down upon? Did we need to change ourselves to fit each other’s lifestyles? I found myself pondering these questions time and time again. I consulted friends from home, hoping for outside perspectives on the situation. I eagerly called my mother, knowing that she would give me advice that can only come from experience. However, ultimately, it was up to me to decide what I wanted to believe and how I would act on