Close your eyes with me if you will...(after you read this of course).
Imagine that every person you ever knew and every person you ever saw everyday of your life had blond hair, blue eyes and pale skin. There is absolutely no variation on this. The blond hair is always the same shade from person to person...same with the eyes. Not even freckles on the skin...just milky white. You've never seen anyone with red, brown, black hair, etc. You could never imagine another eye color than blue.
......This is what it is like living in Korea. Everyday I am fascinated by the "sameness" around me, I mean I truly marvel at it.
Every man, woman and child has black hair and dark eyes....invariably. Millions and millions of them.
The Korean people are beautiful....just stunning, there is no doubt about that...there are just soooo many of them. I wonder how they differentiate themselves from one another? For ex: You don't really see, piercings, tattoos and the like.
For the most part, I get the feeling they are fairly content with conformity.
I've never quite stood out in a crowd like I do here in Korea....especially Andy with his height. I'm getting used to being stared at. A lot of people (mostly children) try to practice their English on us...which never ceases to amaze me, because I could very well be French, German, Italian...whatever. I get the strong feeling they think all white people are Americans.
I've gone all day without seeing another caucasion other than Andy. And oddly, when you are out and about and you do see another white person you kind of feel an automatic connection with them. Bizzare!
I truly know what it is like to be a minority. It's a reminder to me how diverse America really is.
I have to say that I really treasure diversity!
I can't imagine the world without red heads and I just love freckles. I love that different members of the same family can have different hair colors.
I guess my life has been all about trying to be different than everyone around me...I wonder if I would be happier if I were like everyone else? I wonder what it is like being Korean?
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6 comments:
I really had fun reading this post, Sherry. It reminded me of my family, my husband is a tall Italian, w/ black hair and brown eyes, I am VERY fair w/ blonde hair and blue eyes, together we made our daughter who has fairish skin w/ LOTS of freckles, red hair and hazel eyes. I just can't imagine us being much different and together we make an awesome picture :-) Thank you for making me realize that.
Good morning, Sherry! I guess I should say good evening... I'm sure you're just winding down after a long day, and I'm just getting started! I imagine it's a very strange feeling to be different from everyone around you. When you do get back home, I'm sure you'll just "drink up" the diversity!
Awesome post! I wonder how Koreans do feel about this. Although, since it is reality, maybe the possibility of it being different never really occurred to them. I enjoy The Great American Melting Pot.
This is a nice perspective. I guess we do take our diversity for granted. I wonder how we must look to them?
Thanks for relaying your vision to us on how you perceive your stay in this strange(to you) country. I know where you are coming from. Me, being one of those redheads with freckles that you say you like(GRIN) can find the quirkiness of being different. Even in my rural town I was one of maybe a handful of redheads. Everyone else had dark or blonde hair. I always wanted to be a conformist. But didn't go the color-your-hair route. So I stuck with it. YES! it is nice and to be appreciated that America is quite diverse and nonconformist.
Thanks for your honest observations and impressions about diversity and lack of diversity. What will it be like in heaven? Lots and lots of diversity. We need to live an appropriate life here so that we can enjoy heaven's diversity. This note is from your (almost) 90 year old grandfather, Andy's grandpa via his mother, Carolyn. Love ya both. Grandpa D
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