Growing up in average, middle class America, there were a great many things I have come to realize I was completely ignorant of. In some aspects, I am absolutely grateful for it, but alternatively, I feel like I am at a disadvantage as well.
For example, in our home, no one ever discussed ethnicity. Hell, I bet I didn’t even know what it really was until high school. Sure, there were other ethnicities around me, but I simply was not aware of them. I didn’t realize that different ethnicities meant different ideas about people, the world around them, and their place in it. I grew up believing that we all wanted the same things for ourselves and our planet. I believed there were two types of people in this world: good ones and bad ones, and both kinds were everywhere in the world. I had no idea that religion, geographic location, and upbringing could shape a person in a way that was vastly different than I; I presumed despite these differences in background, everyone still wanted the best for each other.
My parents never made reference to a person in relation to their background, so I never noticed the nuances of other ethnicities. To this day, if someone comments that some looks (insert ethnicity here), I always find myself trying to figure out exactly how that is. Is it their eyes? Their mouth? I have little idea.
For this ignorance, I am both at an advantage and a disadvantage. I enjoy having zero preconception in my mind that I must eradicate. I am a blank canvas in that way, my picture of you is painted only by your actions. I don’t have to discard obsolete or prejudiced information, because, well, I just don’t have any. For that, I am quite thankful.
The disadvantage is something I feel much more acutely. I am in complete awe of people with rich cultures (something my upbringing lacked severely in), and I am absolutely ill equipped to engage in any type of intelligent conversation, since I have absolutely no idea where to begin. I find culture so truly fascinating, but since my own upbringing was relatively void of tradition and religion, I have none of my own to draw on and relate to others with. I have never touted myself as a “smart” person per se, but the idea of being so vastly ignorant, so completely deficient in what I currently regard as a key area in interpersonal communication, plagues me, and makes me feel small and sheltered. Which I hate. Immensely.
While this isn’t my biggest weakness, it certainly weighs on my mind. You didn’t actually think I’d post my actual biggest weakness here, did you?
