diversity yet so much commonality

The greatest thing about this city is the diversity.

There is a buzz of energy in the air.

It is thick with different languages, clothes and cultures; but all are sharing a commonality of laughter, love and life.

I find myself in the middle of this great place with great people surrounding me. And I am in love.

My mind is too full to not write tonight. I was sitting in my writing class earlier and yet I could not write then. I have found I do not have time to write during the day, to journal and keep up with memories. No, all that must be done at night because I am too busy during the day experiencing. When the city has settled in a busy hum because it is never completely quiet here. When my body is tired but my mind is still racing,  that is when I write.

What I am seeing, tasting, and feeling  is unlike anything I have in my life.

And it is so good.

For the first time in my life I am finding myself identifying who I am. I have grown up and even gone to school in a culture where I was among the majority. I was around people who were raised very similar to how I was raised and had experienced life in a very similar way to how I had.

Here that is not possible.

We all come from very different places and all have very different experiences. Not only those who are international students, but those of us who come from different regions of the United States.

However we find that same commonality of life, laughter, and love that I am witnessing all over this great city.

We may share different languages, values, experiences and cultures; but I have never bonded so quickly with a group of people. When I sit down with them in the pizza shop or on the quad between classes, I find myself relating to them better than most people I have interactive with during my educational years; both in high school and college so far.

Conversation is easy and laughter flows like a light breeze in the air. We share our life stories and where we come from. Identifying myself and the South where I grew up is a new experience for me. I have never had to explain where I come from before. I've always just regurgitated facts of the area around me, but never the culture. Because I was never so far removed from my culture.

But I do not feel that this place I am or the people I am meeting are all that different from where I come from. All are kind. All are caring. All are simply living life and figuring there role in this bigger picture.

And this is all I have taken in in only a week.

I still have fifteen to go.

Fifteen weeks to grow and change.

To experience and live.

To find out what I am beginning to see as the true me.

Who I want to be and what role I want to play in  this bigger picture.

I am defining who I am and where I stand in a more comfortable place than I have ever been before.