eid shoma mobarak!

Norooz! Happy Persian New Year everyone!

Last night, the girls from my floor accompanied me to what was sure to be an exciting celebration. The Persian Student Group here on campus put on a wonderful festivity during which we could all celebrate the new year. There were stunning performances of traditional dance, music, comedy...you name it. As my resident, Banafsheh, put it "we're running on Persian standard time." What was supposed to happen at 6:00 pm did not start until 6:30 pm, but the atmosphere whispered (sometimes yelled) this is about enjoying each other and celebrating our world; sit back and do exactly that.

The food was interesting and delicious. I was unfortunately called away by an impending deadline for a paper, but what I did see was great. In getting to just chat with my residents before it all started, we ruminated about our own backgrounds. The campus, and therefor our handful of girls consisted of mainly European descent. In fact, we lamented for a moment about not having a past worth celebrating. I stopped myself in that moment, though. Not worth celebrating!? What does that even mean? We are all worth celebrating!

This is going to sound controversial, but know that I have the best intentions. I am tired of being told or hinted to that my own background is the "norm" and therefore unworthy of or lacking in "culture." I am not just "white" and I'm tired of being written off as such. I come from a family thick in German heritage. For heavens sake, my mother's maiden name is Kottenstette and the names only get more German the farther back you go. My father tells me a story of my "great great's" in which a Scotch-Irish man in our family married a red-headed Italian. The stories are endless in which I could tell pieces of my heritage.

I know that standing next to a great percentage of my peers I am going to look like "just another" but I encourage us all to look past those groupings. It is so naive to think in terms of white, black, red, yellow and so on. A man or woman being black, does not mean that he shares the same heritage as his similarly dark friend. A man or woman being white does not mean that they are only part of a homogeneous, uninteresting grouping. There are too many beautiful mixtures of people in this world, and we should never be afraid or think little about celebrating our own unique mix. So what are you waiting for!? Get a group together...celebrate being beautiful...celebrate being human.