Meeting with Khalifa #6

My last meeting with Khalifa took place soon after spring break, and we inevitably started our talk by asking about each other’s break.  I described my trip to a friend’s beach house and Florida and then asked about his vacation. He had flown with some of his friends and cousins to visit his uncle in Colorado. They spent the week hiking mountains, riding horses, and shooting guns. Khalifa raved about how much fun he had at the gun range. He was delighted with how the range offered different types of guns, and all you had to pay for was an hourly fee and ammo. He had taken an almost absurd number of pictures to show me all the different types of guns and ammo.

As we were looking through the pictures, one photo popped up that showed him riding on a horse in the snow. I asked him about it and he responded that that experience was one of the most terrifying events in his life. Now you have to understand that Khalifa is kind of a heavy set, and he originally hated the idea of riding a horse before his friends talked him into it. He hated this ordeal for two reasons. The first was that he had never seen snow before, and displayed a mild hatred for the cold. The second was that none of his friends had thought to mention they would be riding on a path that was barely two feet wide with a rock face on one side and a steep couple hundred foot drop-off on the other. He went on for a while; complaining about the weather, and how he thought his horse was going to break.

During his entire recollection of this day, I was hard pressed not to bust out laughing. Honestly, the kid just looked ridiculous. It’s hard to do justice with words to how completely out of his element he looked in every single picture. It made me think about how out of place I would look in Saudi Arabia with my blinding white skin and red hair. I started thinking about places in the world where I wouldn’t look out of place. There is an extremely large portion of this planet where I would look completely foreign if I were to visit. I still can’t get over how much bigger the world is than myself, and how often I completely forget that. I think this is something that we are all guilty of on a regular basis, typically because our daily lives demand it.  If awareness of other cultures does not play a role in helping one reach their goals, then what’s the point? Do the ends justify the means? I can’s speak for others, but I’ve come to the conclusion that I at some point I will need to become more knowledgeable about other cultures, especially Hispanic culture. In ten years, I see myself practicing medicine somewhere in Texas. Regardless of where I am, communication will be an extremely important tool in my profession, and understanding why people say what they say is something I believe will be key on a daily basis.

The service learning experience has taught me that what we perceive is often only what we see. Too often we forget that there are almost seven billion other people living mutualistically with us, and that we are all connected whether we realize it or not.  There are certain needs and desires that we all possess, regardless of our demographic or geographic diversity. The magnitude of our similarities and differences relies solely upon the instrument we use to observe them. Perception is everything.