I believe growing up in Queens, New York has really shaped who I am. As many people know Queens is one of the most diverse places on Earth. Growing up here in Queens has exposed me to a multitude of cultures and people. I remember in elementary school, we would have a multicultural food night, where people of different ethnicities would bring in food that represented them or their culture. Trying these new foods at such a young age definitely shaped who I am today. My parents also contributed to this. Ever since I could remember, my parents always took my sister and I somewhere on summer vacation. Whether it be a trip to China to visit relatives or a cruise to the Caribbean, we were frequent travelers. As my sister and I grew up, we would expand our options and go to other countries such as England, France, Germany, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and many others. Wherever we went, we would always try new foods and learn about the culture through food. This has shaped me to who I am as I went from a super picky eater at a young age to someone who is willing to try nearly every new thing.
Before starting college, I had many expectations. I expected to always be prepared to learn material by myself as I expected all my classes to be in one of those large lecture halls. I also expected not to make any friends at all within the first few weeks. I mostly expected college to be completely different from high school. However this was clearly not the case. I currently only have one large lecture hall class, and even in that class my Professor teaches the material well. Due to the fact that we have a class block, it was fairly easy to become friends with the students in my class, as well as making friends in an afterschool club. Furthermore, my first semester at least, is very similar to high school in the sense that the class sizes are rather small and most of my classes are with the same people.
I hope that this semester will give me an insight as to what is to come for the next four years. The workload is definitely different than what I am used to and I hope that I will be able to stay organized and get all my work done on time. My main concerns are forgetting about assignments and tests, and as a result losing points off of my total grade.
I think it is so cool that you’ve went to those places, I’d love to talk to you about those cultures and how they are similar to and differ from the Middle Eastern Culture that I experience often.
I also grew up in Queens and I think it really teaches us about diversity. I was also a picky eater but I noticed trying different foods from different cultures can make us much more open minded.
Living in a diverse community and frequently traveling to exotic places sounds like an extremely fun and exciting way to grow up. Constantly learning about and being exposed to new foods and people of different ethnicities must have kept you on your toes. Your experiences will definitely help you have an easier transition into a diverse college life.
I relate to the diversity in Queens as I also grew up here. It’s awesome seeing so many cultures and being exposed to all of these different kinds of people all of the time.