Personal Narrative: My Goal Of Empathy, Knowledge And Responsibility

Within my four years at Hope College, I hope to accomplish the global learning goals of empathy, knowledge, and responsibility. I will accomplish these goals first by utilizing my past experiences as a guide to what is and is not acceptable. Secondly, I will use my self awareness to ensure that I become more careful around those who I am not accustom. Finally, I will use my curiosity of other people and cultures to expand what I know. Growing up in rural Kansas, I was only exposed to Christians who were either hispanic or white. Very rarely did I encounter anyone who was African American, Asian, or Native American outside of my own family. Likewise, I only came across a few non-Christians. This has caused me to have a lower amount of knowledge and empathy towards people of other races and religions. While many others have experienced racism and discrimination first hand, I was living in a world where my friends and family were very discriminatory and, in many cases, racist; I was living in a place of ignorance. It was only when I came to Hope that I realized that I was much more self-aware than I could ever imagine. Having Grown up in a family where my grandparents often coined racial terms, I was considered an outcast. I didn’t want to be mean to those of different races. I had a nephew and three nieces who …show more content…
This happened when I grew as I stared at a woman who was shorter than me, but as old as my mother, or when I was constantly glancing at the man with burn scars covering just over half of his face. It never occurred to me that I was being offensive. I was simply a ten year old girl who was curious, but too shy to ask questions. At ten years old I was very aware of the lack of diversity and knowledge that I had, but too shy to take responsibility or gain knowledge. My curiosity was considered rude to those who didn’t understand or care about this lacking