searching for difference...

So, here we are, Erika & I, listing off random things about us. We find a lot of similarities and a lot of differences, and both identify ourselves heavily by discussing who our parents are.

Erika is a lover of all sports, and a hopeless romantic. She was taught always that God matters above all things. She has two sisters, and is close to her parents. Her parents are both accountants and desire for her to broaden her horizons. Her two sisters are encouraged to do the same.

So at this point, Erika & I share strong familial values, and faiths. Our hobby interests are very different. I’m not into sports, or a romantic in the least, which is frustrating for my boyfriend who enjoys being creatively romantic. And from here, we start to see our differences. As we talk about our parents and siblings we see differences slowly emerging.

Both of our dads are a bit nerdy, but different types of nerds. My dad is incredibly involved in science, and loves to talk and read about history. He rarely watches television, and the last film that I remember my dad watching in the cinema was Congo, when I was 11. He is a super book nerd and loves to talk about things that he’s reading. Erika’s dad is a huge fan of sci-fi television shows, films, and books. He’s read a ton of sci-fi books and enjoys working with numbers too. So we both think we've got pretty neat dads - but we're much different than them.

Our mothers have heavily influenced us as well. Both Erika and I come from families where we were encouraged to get a good education as our parents did, and to know about the world that is out there.

At this point, Erika and I haven't even talked about our obvious difference: race. It didn't come up in our conversation at all. I suppose we could talk about our families having possibly raised us to believe a certain way about another ethnicity to find out if we had a different experience growing up because we are different races. But we didn't. Erika did say that her parents raised her with a strong sense of identity; something that I think applies to both of us.

Our personalities, our interests, and probably how we spend our time seems to be different. Foundationally, Erika and I are a lot alike. I'm sure if I could have spent more than 10 minutes with her I could find many more differences, and learn more from her. Maybe next class?