Hello!

For this post, we were tasked with attending one of the many diversity events that happen around campus. When I first learned this was the topic for this post, I’ll admit, I was a little worried. I wasn’t able to find any event I was overly excited to attend, but finally decided to attend an event called Hafel put on by OAS (Organization of Arab Students) with a group of friends. When we walked into the even, it was definitely a different atmosphere than I had expected. We were immediately greeted with the smell of authentic Arabic food, but sadly, it seemed that not very many people showed up. For the time that we were there, My group of around 10 friends made up about 50% of the attendees. However, it was still a very fun night full of food, music, and laughter. I’m not very accustomed to having so many options for cultural diversity at such close access coming from a very small town in Northeast Ohio. Where I grew up, there wasn’t much variability in our culture, especially when it comes to ethnicity. According to the most recent demographic for Uniontown Ohio, the ethnicity range is about 98% white, and the other 2% is everyone else in our town. So, as one can imagine, I grew up with a very secluded and conservative lifestyle that gave me quite the culture shock after moving to Columbus. In fact, I only graduated with 3 non-Caucasian students from my class of almost 300.

Coming to Ohio State has had such a massive influence on my mindset, both socially and culturally. I’m not going to lie, growing up in such a small town definitely affected how I look at different views, especially political and cultural views. I’ve never once been persecuted or judged based on how I think or look. Ohio State has taken that view and thrown it out the window. I have finally seen exactly what it means to be proud of who you are and where you’re from. The young men and women at Hafel were so happy for us to be there and to experience their culture along side them. They were proud to be able to show us who they are. Not only has coming to college opened my eyes to cultural diversity, but mental as well. I’ve grown around a society of like minded individuals with differences coming few and far between. Being able to come to this university has allowed me to experience the viewpoints of those with different political beliefs than I originally came here with, and caused me to think about what I believe, rather than what I was raised to think. It’s a common cliche, but college life has leas me to evaluate myself and opened me to independent living and thinking. Being able to go to an event such as this and be welcomed with open arms to experience a different culture has shown me what it truly means to open my eyes to the entire world.