What is the difference between "hobbies" and "what you do for fun," anyway? This prompt is kind of lame. But I'll answer it.
I say that I study anthropology because it's basically what I do for fun. I suppose in this context, I mean getting to know people different from I am and trying to see life and their homes through their eyes is something I do for fun. Because that's what it is–while I'm in this world, why should I stay enclosed in my own world views and way of interpreting things when there are an infinite number of other ways to experience life to learn about? Of course, I will only ever live my own life, but that's why I take pleasure in speaking with many people and also learning foreign languages as a means of getting even a glimpse into how the world appears to others. In a way, it affirms that I'm not alone, but also affirms that in my own way I am special.
This, to me, is fun. I've gotten nothing but joy from this curiosity. It comes so easily to me. I'm lucky to live in a globalized world where a Filipino immigrant in the USA can be an exchange student to France and do thesis research field work in Bolivia.
Unfortunately, being appreciative and curious of difference isn't an attitude that a saddening number of people in the country I live in have.
I don't need to talk about the devastation my peers and I felt this week from the presidential elections. I don't need to talk about the horrific things that people here have been facing which I find disturbing and disgusting. I can only wonder in incredulousness why it is so hard to accept difference, to respect others' humanity, to be aware of one's own ignorance and get rid of it by learning from others. What I find fun in doing, they are afraid of.
Though I won't stop being disappointed by the outcome of November 8, 2016, a day that will be engraved in American history, this only proves to me how much more work there is to be done in the cause for tolerance and peace between people. So, so much work.
Good thing it's what I do for fun.
I say that I study anthropology because it's basically what I do for fun. I suppose in this context, I mean getting to know people different from I am and trying to see life and their homes through their eyes is something I do for fun. Because that's what it is–while I'm in this world, why should I stay enclosed in my own world views and way of interpreting things when there are an infinite number of other ways to experience life to learn about? Of course, I will only ever live my own life, but that's why I take pleasure in speaking with many people and also learning foreign languages as a means of getting even a glimpse into how the world appears to others. In a way, it affirms that I'm not alone, but also affirms that in my own way I am special.
This, to me, is fun. I've gotten nothing but joy from this curiosity. It comes so easily to me. I'm lucky to live in a globalized world where a Filipino immigrant in the USA can be an exchange student to France and do thesis research field work in Bolivia.
Unfortunately, being appreciative and curious of difference isn't an attitude that a saddening number of people in the country I live in have.
I don't need to talk about the devastation my peers and I felt this week from the presidential elections. I don't need to talk about the horrific things that people here have been facing which I find disturbing and disgusting. I can only wonder in incredulousness why it is so hard to accept difference, to respect others' humanity, to be aware of one's own ignorance and get rid of it by learning from others. What I find fun in doing, they are afraid of.
Though I won't stop being disappointed by the outcome of November 8, 2016, a day that will be engraved in American history, this only proves to me how much more work there is to be done in the cause for tolerance and peace between people. So, so much work.
Good thing it's what I do for fun.
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