Final Discussion, Khala Flanagan

As someone who loves to write, I’ve always felt that my college studies and subjects help me tremendously with my stories, just like real life experiences do. When you go to college or attend a class, you don’t just learn the subject matter. You learn the art of being challenged, being prompted to speak your mind, and being humble with your work. You learn the art of responsibility, accountability, and respect. You learn what it means to sometimes be discriminated and isolated because of your beliefs. And it opens your eyes to see things you never saw before about people, the world, and even yourself. All in all, education gives a window of opportunity for us students to grow up, change, and become better people (and, for me, a better writer!), only if we let it. He who returns from a journey is not the same as he who left.

So, I try and take as much as I can from all my different classes, especially when it came to anthropology. As a soldier, my Dad has traveled all over the world and seen thousands of different places with bizarre cultures. The stories he tells me and my siblings when he returns are so fascinating, it’s hard to believe that we’re all on this same earth. I was captivated to study anthropology so that I could perhaps get a little bit closer to the worlds my Dad has seen… but most importantly, I wanted to come respect other cultures because I believe we all are made in the image of God.

To me, it’s a shame this class was online. I feel that I would have taken so many more valuable “life lessons” about anthropology if we all could have been together in a classroom, discussing things verbally instead of always through the internet. When you’re talking about human cultures, it helps to have a “real” human being to talk to instead of a computer screen!

But even though that wasn’t the case for this class, I still feel the effects of what I’ve learned. I HAVE come to respect other cultures much more profoundly than before because of where they are geographically on our earth, their kind of livelihood and customs, and how they see life. Even though I don’t agree with many others’ ways and cultures, my faith has helped to remind me of the sacredness of life, and that God’s grace falls upon everyone… especially those who don’t know or reject Him.

One special moment happened to me this week that proved just how anthropology has helped me see things differently. My little sisters returned from the library with bags full of picture books, and one book they had picked out was “People” by Peter Spier. The book colorfully shows the different people across the world, how they live, where they live, and what they believe. Because it’s a children’s book, it’s perfectly innocent and explains things in the simplest terms possible. Yet, the ending of the book really struck me, because I think it’s exactly what I can summarize about my anthropology experience with this class:

Six billion human beings… young and old, sick and well, happy and unhappy, kind and unkind, strong and weak. People everywhere. And all different. It is very strange: Some people even hate others because they are unlike themselves. Because they are different. They forget that they too would seem different if they could only see themselves through other people’s eyes. But imagine how dreadfully dull this world of ours would be if everybody looked, thought, ate, dressed, and acted the same! Now isn’t it wonderful that each and every one of us is unlike any other?