Diversity Essay Showcase

Diversity in Disguise
By Elizabeth Hansel, Moshannon Valley High School, Clearfield County
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Diversity in our lives comes in many ways. Sometimes it is internal while other times its obvious. Some people are exposed to it everyday, while others don't come in contact with it until later years of their lives.

Being 15, and living in a small town, I don't think I truly understand how complex diversity is. However I deal with it somewhat everyday in school, sports, and in the little traveling I do.

Take school for instance. Our school doesn't tolerate odd colored hair or big baggy clothes, as might a school in Philadelphia or Pittsburgh. And when someone or something diverse comes along to our school or town, people are stunned and don't know exactly what to think. For example, in the three years I've attended my high school, I have never been exposed to a homosexual. As well as most of the kids in my school haven't. Recently we've had a family move to our area and their daughter is now in our 10th grade. She is bi-sexual. I've never had anything against gays or lesbians, but that is probably a result of never really having to deal with this issue. Just as most of the kids in my school, I've accepted her as a normal human.

With my town being so small, there aren't a lot of wealthy people, and there's not a lot of high paying jobs. Many kids that attend my school have families who can't afford nice clothes. Other wealthier kids look down on them for that. This is when people suffer from diversity. I am exposed to children with low self-esteem and ones who are constantly made fun of for their different life-styles. Even though this might be one of the minor ends of diversity, it's the one that upsets me the most.

Some people use diversity as a defense mechanism. They try to make themselves believe that if they dye their hair blue, or wear outrageous clothes, then nobody will want to get to know the real them. They're scared that if people know who they really are and what they stand for, then they'll take that chance of not being liked.

A lot of diversity is external and obvious, while another type is internal. Many of people's diverse characteristics are not seen but only understood by talking and getting to know the person. People's lives are formed by all the events they've gone through from the day they were born. Some kids may suffer from child abuse, and have had traumatic emotional events in their lives. Therefore while they look like you and me on the outside, they could be completely different on the inside. I came to realize this when I was at a camp. My group came to know another group of kids who we thought were a really great bunch of kids. Their advisors for some reason, that we didn't understand, tried to keep them apart from us as much as they thought was necessary. "Why aren't they allowed to come play a simple game of cards in our tent with us?" we'd ask ourselves. Only later did we come to an understanding that, that group of kids had been in a residential treatment center and suffered from serious mental health conditions. Which was the result of being physically and sexually abused.

That was when I realized that people appear to be the same as you, but internally they have their own differences. People sometimes don't see or understand them until they've talked and understand a little more about the person.

I believe that diversity was created, not to make people feel belittled, but to make the world a better place to live in. That's why it is important to accept people as God made them. Without diversity, our lives would be boring and almost pointless.