Noting that every culture has its differences is a lesson every social guest must not only witness, but experience. Ideally everyone would share the same practices, customs, and norms, but then the ideal would be dull.
During the summer I had the opportunity to travel 16 hours to vacation in Barcelona, Spain. My experiences will forever serve to mentally escape beyond the limits of California and into a world seemingly parallel.
I ventured to expose an embarrassing moment in my family vacation because it is there that I was able to learn the greatest lesson abroad. We are different. It doesn't take a 16 hour flight to realize that, but it was never as evident as it was while walking down the street, ashamed for the people, while they themselves felt none and cared not. The world is a vast expanse of cultures and people who are born, who live, and who die. To the naked eye we are identical but uniquely and beautifully are we individually placed and crafted. I was not comfortable because I did not understand. Again I say it does not take a 16 hour flight to become immersed in a culture that contrasts with your own. For some people it only takes a drive down Flower Street in Santa Ana, for others it is a drive up Bolsa Avenue in Garden Grove, but the reality is that without respect or without a desire to understand, we isolate ourselves. As social guests it is a requirement for one to at least have the decency to attempt to understand because there is a humanity and a driving emotion behind every custom and culture and because the more understanding there is among us, the less conflicts stem from these misunderstandings. The less hatred and more mutual steps we take toward each other allow us to push past our backgrounds and into viable reality of our humanity.