Different is Beautiful

“I know there is strength in the differences between us. I know there is comfort, where we overlap.” 

― Ani DiFranco 

For many the term "different" is scary because it means to be unlike a norm that is represented by majority. It is unlike everything, separate from natural quality. Being different means standing out and and most people only want to fit in. There is a certain beauty about a word like different because it allows the ones in its category to define what it means to them and to give meaning to those standards. Genetically we are born different, but in society we wish to all be the same. 

Ethnic American Literature is the study of the differences we can't help but have and how even with those differences we are still essentially the same. We learned about the struggle of the human condition in very different and complex ways and how they shape different understandings of the world around us. How these struggles although different can bring us together. The only place in the world where being different is accepted even tolerated to an extent is America. This is the country of diversity, a God given birth right of identity where people come together to form a smaller piece of the world. And it means so many things to be an American that one description could never fit and that is beautiful. 

During the digital presentations I found out just how beautiful these differences are because no matter what color, race, gender, sexual orientation, likes, dislikes, hobbies, stories, religion we may have we have been synchronized and built by this country we have in it created who we are and who we choose to be and that is beyond beautiful. There are no boundaries. When you first step into a class it is surreal to understand at the very moment the beautiful lives of those around us at that very second and it is even more surreal to discover the intricate stories of these people, of my classmates. There will never be anything in this world like someones story, because like the stories we have read this semester they are all bound by an ultimate experience with ultimate consequences that lead us to our present states. Should we be thankful or should we be angry with the experience? Do they shatter us or rebuild us? That is a decision that we don't fully understand and at times we will never understand and that is still beautiful. I loved the stories that were shared in this class because they were all different and they were all complex and when told they give you a small part of every person, and in those small parts there are bigger parts that are still mysterious and they are still progressive. And that is beautiful.