by Sean McCarty
Mine is a story of isolation and indoctrination….which sounds a lot heavier than it actually is, but dramatic effect is fun.
I grew up in an environment rooted in keeping to your own kind. My parents were raised with this mindset and ended up a bit more liberal than their own, but it wasn’t much.
In my household, you didn’t associate much with people that weren’t like us. You would be friendly and polite, but if they weren’t the same as us (read: white and born in the United States…mainly white) you would keep them at an arm’s length.
Thinking about this now is staggering. I could not imagine living my life in this manner. Excluding someone based on their race, ethnicity, or skin colour is a bit ridiculous at the least and creeps into hateful territory.
I looked up to my parents and overall they were good to my sister and I. We were taught to be strong-willed, free-thinking (which is a bit ironic at times), and to keep our word. We were taught that we shouldn’t compromise who we were for another nor should we break ourselves to meet the standards of another. I hold these values so close to this day and it causes a bit of strain from time to time.
How could these values of being a good, strong, well-intentioned person exist side by side with what was essentially racism?
When I started working in my teens I was thrust into an environment full of people that were not like me. I worked side by side with men and women of every background and very quickly learned an important lesson: We are all Human. I embraced this lesson and dove headfirst into learning as much as I could about different cultures. It was at this point that I started writing what would become my blog, Through Dust Covered Glass.
I started writing with the goal of sharing my journey from isolation to openness and I try to keep this going today.
Each one of us has such a unique story to tell and experiences that shape who we are. Without sharing these experiences we miss out on what it is to be human.
I do my best to place myself in the shoes of another and embrace their perspective. I am still on my journey to explore the world and meet new people with experiences totally different than my own and I can’t wait to see what the future brings.
Get out there and share your story!
Sean McCarty is a blogger and writer from Arizona in the United States. Sean primarily writes about sharing and understanding the different perspectives of those we share the world with. He also has a happy, goofy, adorable ball of fluff called Zoey who is going on 9 years old now(!). She’s a Lab/Chow mix and is jet black except for some grey on her chin.
You can find Sean over at his blog Through Dust Covered Glass, and he is also on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
Pet Spotlight: Zoey
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