Sep 16 - Reflect on a time when you discovered a new perspective that completely changed how you viewed a person, group, or place. How did your previous “single story” shape your thoughts or actions?

Response: A time when I discovered a new perspective was when I started to hang around my girlfriend's family and neighborhood more often. My girlfriend is Guatemalan and has grown up in the same apartments all her life with her mom. I had a single story of this lifestyle for a long time before I was able to see this new perspective. I had assumed for the longest time that people who lived in apartments like these were completely different than me, often having pity for them whenever I would pass by apartments. As terrible as I am putting it, this is the single story of immigrant families that I have had in my head all my life. But once I was able to really look at the lives these families were living, just like the woman from the TED Talk had done as well, I saw that my life was so much more similar to my girlfriend's than I thought. Being part of an immigrant family doesn't mean you can't have the same experiences as other families in the US. Because I was able to gain a new perspective on immigrant families, I now feel like I have a better understanding of the culture and daily life.

Summary: Today, we did a Common Lit assignment discussing the dangers of a single story.

Reflection: We should all strive to learn as much as we can about the different lives people are living among us so we can gain different perspectives and not fall victim to the dangers of a single story.

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