Cultural Identity

br Experiential Learning and Me What Life has Led me to Believe Growing up in a southern state with traditional family and religious values has made transitioning into college life a bit difficult Questioning myself and my own bias from my experiences in life is an ongoing process , as I wonder is it me ' or its possible that I feel strongly about issues because my values and ethics overshadow all I feel as if I move from a state of passive to aggressive in my actions just as I do my own

state of internal feeling of who I am . Sometimes I feel like I have been treated unfairly both as a child and now , simply for being female . In my actions I sometimes pretend that this does not bother me and that a woman 's place is in the home , being a good mother and wife , bit other times I lash out when this is expected of me from my church , family , and some facets of society . I struggle in this passive aggressive way in my own religion too . As a Baptist , sometimes I feel like the teachings are true and correct and that social issues , such as homosexuality are undesirable and need to be fixed . Other times , however , I feel like homosexuality and other so-called social issues brought up in the church should not be treated like diseases and we have no business trying to cure ' others

Growing up white , female , and very religious , I was taught ideals that seemed to contradict themselves . The most notable cases were of people in poverty . We were not a poor family , but I would see a great majority of people in my state of Tennessee living in very unpleasant conditions From teachings of the church and my family , I was taught to help those who cannot help themselves . But , the irony was that most conservative people around believed that everyone could help themselves and that their state of poverty was simply due to laziness . I remember thinking that I was just a kid and had no control over my home life and that these other impoverished kids I would see could not help their situation any more that I could . So it was confusing that no one seemed to go out of their way (with a few exceptions ) to help poor people back home

We were , also , expected to treat people equally and not have any hate in our hearts ' for anyone for any reason . It wasn 't obvious to my friends and I that our parents were in any way bigoted toward minorities , because they didn 't use racial slurs or openly discuss their dislike for other races . But , when my friends and I started becoming older and noticing boys , our parents wouldn 't hide their shock when we said that we had an attraction for a boy of another race . Then I realized that my parents did not believe in interracial relationships and for awhile I thought that it was...