America has been a place that brought about many changes to my en- tire family. I was born in America, but then my family immediately moved back to China after my birth. Once I returned to America as a child, I lived with my cousins for a while. Eventually, once my family had their own house, I started attending school. I was excited about the thought of going to school since I pretty much never left the house. Once I went, the realization of being alone had hit me. Taking the first step into the building seemed like a nightmare. I saw my mom slowly disappear around the corner as the teacher held my hand and we went into the classroom. My older sister, on the other hand, walked in casually, since she was a grade ahead of me. I feel silly looking back at this now. At the end of the day, I never really felt out of place there, from kindergarten to the current grade I am in. There has always been a variety of people from around the world in the schools I have attended. I got along well with other people and made some true friends. I saw this diversity as normal growing up, and it changed my opinion on differences for the better.

In middle school, I had a close friend that I grew up with, who eventually moved away. After he moved, another mutual friend told me that our friend was gay. I had no idea; his sexuality never occurred to me. He was just like any other one of my friends. I was really surprised, but at the same time I just shrugged it off. At that time, homosexuality was an unknown thing to me. I didn’t make much of it or understand the issues that came from it. To me, he was still one of my best friends, and even when I found out, I just saw him as my best friend. The next time I saw him was later at a friend’s birthday party and I never brought up the fact that I knew he was homosexual. My friend, along with the diverse environment where I grew up, greatly affected me. To this day, I could never tell how he felt or what he had gone through. However, seeing as his friends and I knew about his sexuality, and nothing changed, I can only hope he felt our acceptance of him.

Once I learned of the issues that came with homosexuality, I understand how much I overlooked the topic. From where I grew up, I see diversity as normal and how it should be everywhere. Not everyone grew up the way I did and because of this, I have been mostly unaware of the extent that discrimination reaches. Differences vary from sexuality, disabilities, age, sex, ethnicity, religion, and most noticeably, race. My past experiences with unique individuals have broadened how I perceive others and come to terms with them. People with different sexual orientations in other places suffer when trying to fit in. Here in Massachusetts, people are much more welcoming to others than in other areas of the world. Those who don’t care to understand a person cause confusion, which attributes to the issues of discrimination. I’ve known my best friend for quite some time now, and I’ve come to understand that it’s the individual that counts rather than how they distinguish themselves.

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