Culture and Acceptance
Culture and Acceptance
Benjamin Seeberger
SIT Entrance Essay
Friday, August 22, 2003
Culture and Acceptance
Since I was a little child, I’ve been surrounded by culture. For most of my peers, it would’ve been too much to handle. For nearly ten years almost every day I ate Chinese food for lunch and dinner. From age four, over eight different languages were spoken by people who lived with my family. My mother told stories of her life as a missionary in four different countries. While growing up, my videographer parents created missionary videos from countries like Zaire (D. Republic of Congo), Thailand, Japan, Indonesia, and the Philippines. My mother spoke three languages. Our favorite family dishes were fondue, potstickers, and ramen. We even had a Chinese thanksgiving once!
To the rest of our community, we were unique. In a plot of houses that looked exactly the same, in a classroom that boasted one Chinese girl and two African-American males as minority, in a city where the average income was $50,000 to $150,000 per year annual income, my family was a rarity. One day, on the bus coming home, I heard a peer share how startled he was that his friend was traveling to Oakland, a thirty minute car trip. He was surprised because it was so far away. By then, I had already visited five countries outside of the United States. I suddenly felt very different.
This isn’t to say my peers were ignorant. This is to say how extraordinary and different my life was comparatively. I grew up in a different world - a world where cultures were not just ‘those other people,’ but rather, where cultures had an impact on the world at every moment, regardless if someone thought he didn’t have to deal with the rest of the world. My home was a melting pot of people from around the world. Every word spoken and every action these people made in my home affected me and changed me. Every time they spoke to me, whether in happiness or in anger, I was stretched beyond the distanced suburbia where I grew up. Finishing high school, having visited twelve countries and three different continents, I had become impassioned to the world. At age five, I wanted to become a missionary. At age eight I wanted to work in Africa building dams and ponds. When fourteen, I wanted to join the foreign service. At eighteen, I was challenged by a man who had, as a westerner, developed a socio-economic program amongst the poorest of the poor in NE Thailand that produced results many times over anything the government ever hoped to do. At nineteen, I wanted to be a war correspondent. At twenty-one, I discovered the worldwide ticket of ESL teaching. And when I was twenty-two, I applied to the Peace Corps and the School for International Training, to specialize in sustainable development in the Master’s International program.
I have a passion and a problem. My passion - desiring people to come together harmonically making decisions that improve the lives of everyone around them. My problem is seeing people separating themselves from each other and then killing each other for lack of understanding. My life vision has ordered me, by the natural cause of all things, to become a bridge, so that people crossing this bridge respect humanity as life, which if treated without malice but instead with hope and love, may accomplish great things, together. I am looking at SIT to help me in this.
I will learn how to communicate with not only the people who surround us from day to day, but the geographically distant. I will learn to aid communities which struggle with simple things of life that people like me take for granted - that all people should enjoy.
Let me share with you my vision for the future, and how SIT, as a unique organization devoted to training leaders worldwide, can help. I envision a world populated by people not afraid of each other because of heritage, appearance, or action. I envision a world where citizens respect and love each other, not from extrinsic force, but because they understand in order to live life together, a sense of mutual respect and love is needed to live life fully. I envision a world where cultural stereotypes are the minority, and lifestyle is great. This world cannot be accomplished by fear, but rather by education, communication, and respect. I see SIT as not only the first step in this, but also the device by which I can learn valuable skills to aid me in this process. To live in a world where the living standards are high, and culture is no longer a division but a connection, isn’t that ideal? I’m not so blind to believe that I can create a utopic world. I do believe however, that with the proper training from the proper individuals, I can make the world a better place to live, and that is worth a lifetime of working.
I expect the program will teach me the theories, concepts, and analysis to aid me in helping communities that need basic food, shelter, and security. I expect the program will vigorously test me on these principles, so that once I leave the school, I will be well prepared to meet the challenges of the international world. As I outreach to other students, I will grow friendships with them. I will, as a member of a society that does not normally seek to spread their arms in open friendship, be a reminder of hope. Perhaps in the future, I will partner with them, because of the community that SIT offers.
But most of all, I will learn from them. I will be immersed in a world where truth is not seclusion, but connection. And I will grow from them, so that through them, I can help countless others. And perhaps, in the end the world will be a better place.
Benjamin Seeberger
SIT Entrance Essay
Friday, August 22, 2003
Culture and Acceptance
Since I was a little child, I’ve been surrounded by culture. For most of my peers, it would’ve been too much to handle. For nearly ten years almost every day I ate Chinese food for lunch and dinner. From age four, over eight different languages were spoken by people who lived with my family. My mother told stories of her life as a missionary in four different countries. While growing up, my videographer parents created missionary videos from countries like Zaire (D. Republic of Congo), Thailand, Japan, Indonesia, and the Philippines. My mother spoke three languages. Our favorite family dishes were fondue, potstickers, and ramen. We even had a Chinese thanksgiving once!
To the rest of our community, we were unique. In a plot of houses that looked exactly the same, in a classroom that boasted one Chinese girl and two African-American males as minority, in a city where the average income was $50,000 to $150,000 per year annual income, my family was a rarity. One day, on the bus coming home, I heard a peer share how startled he was that his friend was traveling to Oakland, a thirty minute car trip. He was surprised because it was so far away. By then, I had already visited five countries outside of the United States. I suddenly felt very different.
This isn’t to say my peers were ignorant. This is to say how extraordinary and different my life was comparatively. I grew up in a different world - a world where cultures were not just ‘those other people,’ but rather, where cultures had an impact on the world at every moment, regardless if someone thought he didn’t have to deal with the rest of the world. My home was a melting pot of people from around the world. Every word spoken and every action these people made in my home affected me and changed me. Every time they spoke to me, whether in happiness or in anger, I was stretched beyond the distanced suburbia where I grew up. Finishing high school, having visited twelve countries and three different continents, I had become impassioned to the world. At age five, I wanted to become a missionary. At age eight I wanted to work in Africa building dams and ponds. When fourteen, I wanted to join the foreign service. At eighteen, I was challenged by a man who had, as a westerner, developed a socio-economic program amongst the poorest of the poor in NE Thailand that produced results many times over anything the government ever hoped to do. At nineteen, I wanted to be a war correspondent. At twenty-one, I discovered the worldwide ticket of ESL teaching. And when I was twenty-two, I applied to the Peace Corps and the School for International Training, to specialize in sustainable development in the Master’s International program.
I have a passion and a problem. My passion - desiring people to come together harmonically making decisions that improve the lives of everyone around them. My problem is seeing people separating themselves from each other and then killing each other for lack of understanding. My life vision has ordered me, by the natural cause of all things, to become a bridge, so that people crossing this bridge respect humanity as life, which if treated without malice but instead with hope and love, may accomplish great things, together. I am looking at SIT to help me in this.
I will learn how to communicate with not only the people who surround us from day to day, but the geographically distant. I will learn to aid communities which struggle with simple things of life that people like me take for granted - that all people should enjoy.
Let me share with you my vision for the future, and how SIT, as a unique organization devoted to training leaders worldwide, can help. I envision a world populated by people not afraid of each other because of heritage, appearance, or action. I envision a world where citizens respect and love each other, not from extrinsic force, but because they understand in order to live life together, a sense of mutual respect and love is needed to live life fully. I envision a world where cultural stereotypes are the minority, and lifestyle is great. This world cannot be accomplished by fear, but rather by education, communication, and respect. I see SIT as not only the first step in this, but also the device by which I can learn valuable skills to aid me in this process. To live in a world where the living standards are high, and culture is no longer a division but a connection, isn’t that ideal? I’m not so blind to believe that I can create a utopic world. I do believe however, that with the proper training from the proper individuals, I can make the world a better place to live, and that is worth a lifetime of working.
I expect the program will teach me the theories, concepts, and analysis to aid me in helping communities that need basic food, shelter, and security. I expect the program will vigorously test me on these principles, so that once I leave the school, I will be well prepared to meet the challenges of the international world. As I outreach to other students, I will grow friendships with them. I will, as a member of a society that does not normally seek to spread their arms in open friendship, be a reminder of hope. Perhaps in the future, I will partner with them, because of the community that SIT offers.
But most of all, I will learn from them. I will be immersed in a world where truth is not seclusion, but connection. And I will grow from them, so that through them, I can help countless others. And perhaps, in the end the world will be a better place.