VALUES FOR LIFE International Essay Contest

The Beauty of Different

by Miss. Mikia Weidenbach
Grade 11, Waialua High and Intermediate School
Waialua, Hawai'i, USA

When I was four years old, my family moved into one of the last surviving sugar plantation towns. The town was a glimpse into the past, a historic footprint left behind from one of the most successful assimilations of a group of diverse cultures. Though the town has grown and changed since it was first established by immigrant workers, the cultural integration and values of acceptance of their time still exist today. I grew up side by side with children of various ethnicities, religions, and cultures. As we grew up together, we discovered the uniqueness of our peaceful way of life and learned to appreciate the values it had instilled within us. As witnesses to a thriving multi-cultural society, we learned not only the importance of social justice, but we gained the wisdom to know what is needed for that way of life to triumph in the world.

School served as the site of much of my cultural learning. My constant exposure to children from various different upbringings helped me to develop many of the fundamental values necessary in a multi-cultural society. It became natural for me to accept differences and not to judge people just because their beliefs did not correspond with my own. When I was eight, the girl that sat next to me did not stand up to recite the Pledge of Allegiance with the rest of the class because of the line “indivisible under God.” Having grown up with social justice, I did not take it as an affront to my religion. Instead, I understood that she was neither right nor wrong, she was only different. Through a child’s eyes, unbranded by biased cultural beliefs, different merely meant interesting. Because of my simple acceptance, I gained a valuable friendship that exists to this day.

Throughout my life, I continued to have an assortment of friends with different religions and backgrounds than me. I had a friend who came from the Philippines, a friend who was Buddhist, a friend who was affluent, and a friend who was homeless. No matter where they came from, to me they were just like any other classmate. Because we were friends, they shared with me parts of who they were, and those pieces became an integral part of who I was. For our sixth grade graduation, our class had a potluck where everyone would bring a dish from home to the party. From mochi to lumpia, poi to meat jun, the diversity of dishes that appeared was wonderful. Each distinctive dish was a reflection of everyone’s individual backgrounds. I sampled every dish, encountering a world of flavors. Some were similar to my own dish, others were not, but every one was unique. Somehow, despite the dissimilarities between the dishes, together they complemented each other perfectly.

With today’s technological advances in communication and travel, countries that have never interacted before have been brought together into the same classroom. The world now has the potential to be one culturally diverse community. While the scope of this global community is significantly larger than the one I grew up in, the same principles that allowed my town to thrive will play a key role in the success of today’s world. Countries must break the trend of tyranny and oppression by tolerating different ethnicities and religious and cultural practices. In our dealings with foreign countries, we must be open to engage in equal and non-discriminatory partnerships, which can help us better understand our global community and initiate a world-wide cooperative movement toward global peace and social justice. Social justice is attainable if mankind can recognize their common goals and unite together to rid the world of poverty and hunger and create equal political, medical, technological, and educational rights. Already, the United Nations is a global collaboration that proves differences can be set aside when striving for social justice throughout the world. The altruistic values of this organization reflect those of a multi-cultural society.

Achieving social justice throughout the world may seem unrealistic to some, but to me, it is a hope that makes me who I am. The small plantation town I come from is my proof that formidable obstacles can be overcome when a group of diverse individuals cooperate in the pursuit of a mutual objective. Though the immigrant workers were from vastly different cultures, they did not separate themselves from each other. They learned to view each other as a fellow worker striving for the same goal. Through their values they were able to live in peace, integrating each other's customs into a new diversified culture—one so harmonious that an entirely new pidgin language, composed of their various languages, was produced. Their acceptance and willingness to adapt in order to live peacefully together shines as a glowing example of a successful multi-cultural society, which we can look toward for guidance in our global endeavors today.

My life experiences have taught me the attributes of an open-minded society. Because of my values, I can see the potential of this new global community to discover the benefits of tolerance, acceptance, and cooperation. With time, people can learn to appreciate the beauty that differences can have. So long as the values of a multi-cultural society persist, I believe the countries of the world can unite to solve the problems of today, and pave the way for a more peaceful tomorrow.

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