a glance behind

Here's a little something from my previous blog. This is my favorite post ever.

Tuesday, August 01, 2006

The Atrocious Truth of Life

I graduated from high school in May of 2005. It's been a whole year and more since then and I'm only starting school again today. Well, university to be exact. I've been looking forward to this day since middle school if I can recall correctly. 


College has always been about partying and having fun. Of course, it was also about studying and building up a great life for my future. But most of all, the freedom one gets at this age. College is supposed to be the beginning of a new era, a great era. However though, things didn't really work out so much as I had planned. 


Today started with a big grin on my face. I woke up, showered and drove to class as I had done a million times to school the previous year. I wasn't the slightest bit nervous because I have done a lot of school exchanges since pre-school as I follow my Dad around the world. 


I've always been good at making friends. People come and go, as do I. Ergo, the significance of one's first impression. All you really need to do is be open to everything and everyone. That is the only way to get around in the world of today. That is the only way things have worked out for me every time I've switched schools. Somehow, things were a little bit different this time around. 


I was sitting in class earlier today, and being one of the earliest students to have arrived, I chose a random seat. As time passed by, and more students had come in, I noticed that I was still sitting alone. And by the time everyone had come in, including the lecturer, I was still by myself. I took a good hard look around and I realized that I was the only one sitting alone. Everyone else had at least two or three other people around him or her. 


I didn't understand, so I took another look around. And this time I saw it. 


It had hit me then and there. I was sitting point blank to the one thing I have been taught otherwise my entire life, the one thing that I have always read and learned about but have never had to face, the one thing I have never succumbed to and the one thing I have always been afraid of; racial hostility. 


As an international university, they are accustomed to host a number of nations in each class. However though, what truly shocked me was the diversity. Not in the number of nationalities in my class, but the diversity of cliques based on the number of nationalities in my class. 


This is the atrocious truth of life and as far as I'm concerned, this is something I will never be willing to be a part of. I'd rather go the extra mile, wait the extra day and suffer a little extra. But not this, never this.