Differences

Many people choose to move to America for the promises of jobs, freedom, and a new life. This results in America becoming a big melting pot, which is to say that our people are from all different places, of different heritages, speak different languages, belong to different cultures, and have different interests. This is what America is all about: bringing all sorts of people together. America is built on inclusivity and unity, with all of our fellow Americans coming from different places.

You can see examples of this unity everywhere you go, whether it’s at work, at school, or on an athletic team. On the ROHS Men’s Swim & Dive Team, for example, all of our members are different, and we’re all brought together by a common interest: Swimming. In America, this common interest is the desire for success. This is the ideal American dream, an abundance of diverse people all united by similar interests or desires, in this case, it can be anything from simply being an American to succeeding financially, or being free.

Recently, I job shadowed Mrs. Morrison, the ESL teacher at Grandview Elementary in Clarenceville. Some of the students had very noticeable accents, some didn’t have accents at all, this could be because they came to America at different times, or just because they learn differently from the other kids in the class. Clarenceville, as Mrs. Morrison told me, recently had a large influx of students from Syria and Albania. This made her job harder, because she had more kids to teach, but it also made the classes become more connected because it brought more students together. After I got home, I realized that an ESL class is essentially this American ideal on a much smaller scale. All of these students have stories of how they came to America, and that’s something they’ll always hold on to, and once they perfect their English skills, they’ll be able to tell that story to all of their peers. In a sense, this is a big factor in the American dream; sure, we all have some similarities, but our vast differences are what bring those similarities into perspective.

On a much larger scale, this concept can be compared to Esperanto. About 100 years ago, a Polish doctor named L.L. Zamenhof designed the language of Esperanto. Zamenhof was fascinated by the idea of a world without war and believed that creating a universal language would play a large role in attaining this goal. Esperanto was designed to be very simple in order to allow speakers of any language to learn it quickly. Now, with about 2 million speakers, Esperanto allows people from all over the world to tell their stories to people that don't speak the same first language. Speakers of Esperanto are from all over the world, and all have their own stories, but they’re united by the language they speak.

Everyone in America is different, whether it's their heritage, language, religion, or anything else, these different people are all brought to America by one common goal: to start a new life. While yes, these people are starting a new life, they'll never forget their old one.