Far from home

Among my college choices this year were schools ranging from Indiana University (which is very close to my home in Bloomington, Indiana) to George Washington University and Texas Christian University. Why did I choose the farthest one from home? Texas is only twenty hours away right, well how bad could it be? In truth, TCU has been great so far, though there have been challenges too.

My first challenge (that wasn't a quiz or test) came to me my Intro to Social Work class last week. This class is a night class that meets once a week. It lasts about three hours and everyone is pretty tired and worn out by the end. Well, we were talking about the growing rift between African Americans and whites in our country today. For the first time in my life, I was really scared that a race fight was going to break out in class. I sat silently while the teacher tried to get control of the "discussion". The whole time, thoughts like, "Did he really just say that?!?" ran through my head. No one actually got physical, but it was a shocking experience none the less.

When I got back to the dorm around 8:30 I sat stunned, trying to compute the situation. I knew when I chose to come south for school that there were still feelings of hate left here, more than where I came from in Bloomington. In my head I knew. I grew up in Tennessee and was still sheltered there, but had seen enough to know that racial divides still exist in our country. But I still wasn't prepared for the yelling. This is a university right? Shouldn't these divides be more masked on a campus? This is 2008, not 1960 right? What is going on? It struck me then, that I was far from home in more ways than one.

I was glad when I went back to the professor the next day to try and make sense of the whole thing. She told me that it was a good experience, that universities are exactly the places for the discussions to happen. We can grow in this diverse atmosphere, if slowly, just because we are all so different. When we all leave college, most tend to fall into groups that are just like themselves. It is harder to solve diversity problems in environments where little or no diversity exists. So, isn't it our duty then to make the most of our varied environments to change the world? Shouldn't all college students be facing differences just because now they have the opportunity? Shouldn't we all? Isn't that what God asks?

The choir in church today sang, "Spirit Divine, we pray that proud divisions end; O, haste the day when each and every stranger is friend. We will stand united in one grand community; we will sing our songs of faith in perfect harmony!" Malachi 2:10 says, "Have we not all one Father? Did not one God create us? Why do we profane the covenant of our fathers by breaking faith with one another?" If we are indeed all created by God, and are to treat all of God's creations with utmost care, then we are certainly to love each and every other individual, race aside. God's calling to me at TCU has thus far been to experience what can sometimes divide humans, and to speak up next time I have a chance to resolve conflict.