By Alexx Thompson

I think throughout the year, I’ve changed a lot. In the beginning, I came in with prior knowledge, and unreasonably expected everyone to be on the same level. Thinking that way skews your judgment and holds you back from being able to actually judge people correctly. I used to be a bit harsher back then, not understanding why some people messed up on certain things, or why they didn’t grasp it as quickly. Then as I spent more and more time working alongside my friends and classmates, I began to really open my eyes.

Not everyone is going to be on the same level as you, whether that be lower or higher.

And that’s a good thing.

You can use these experiences to help yourself grow as well as helping other people grow. It’s easier to empathize with people knowing this. I know in the beginning a lot of things weren’t exactly easy for me, and it only became better with practice. So whenever I offered help I tried to explain it more, and practiced alongside everyone else.

You can’t help someone if you don’t try to put yourself in their shoes. Even if you try, it’ll just be extremely difficult. I was really glad to humble myself and get my mind out of the high pedestal I’d placed myself on. Everything is about practice and what resources are available to you. A fact of life is that everyone isn’t going to have those same resources.

Growing alongside everyone really helped me see that. We’ve all improved and worked our hardest. I’ve seen our classmates work really hard to achieve their goals and I was really inspired. It pushed me to work even harder than before. I really enjoyed playing study games and doing review with everyone. Especially the skits. It was really cool to see how everyone came up with new ideas and really were able to use their Japanese.

It was also fun playing karuta to learn Katakana and Hiragana. It was a nice and fun way to review with everyone, and we always had loads of fun. Once I let down my judgmental barriers about my class, I was able to open up easier and have more fun. Life isn’t black and white or this or that. It’s a fun scale of diverse people, and that’s what our class is. You can’t always like a person 100%, but that doesn’t mean you should automatically dislike them forever for one little thing. Embrace differences and look at yourself first. What can you fix about yourself.

From the bottom of my heart this class will definitely change the way you view the world, and yourself. I’m really honored to be a part of this Globalize DC class, and hope to continue with everyone to learn more!