My first real random encounter

This morning I went to the Aveda School to get my brows waxed....pretty exciting morning. The student that was performing this service asked questions about what I do, what's my schedule like, etc, and in there I mentioned I was taking this class and therefore my schedule was a little wackadoodle on Tuesdays and Thursdays. She immediately said, Oh, that's so awesome! I'm multicultural, and our conversation ensued.

Without repeating the entire dialogue, what I loved most was that I was able to speak with her about issues of which I may not have previously thought about. My favorite was asking her about how she's felt having two heritages....she said that up until a couple years ago she didn't appreciate her father's heritage (white, Mormon) but fully embraced her mom's side (Chilean). But even when she visited Chile she was teased while visiting for being two white. A couple years ago she had an aha moment and has accepted and embraced both cultures. Her parents are also divorced, she has blue hair and a pierced nose, and is one of the kindest and most passionate people I've met. I think there were definitely a lot of things going on in her young years that have been learning and life shaping experiences for her.

Another comment she had was about the racist comments she would occasionally receive - completely not in an unkind way, but in the unknowing, uneducated way. "You're Chilean? You don't look like it!!! YOU speak Spanish?!? Are you SURE you're from Chile?"  She realized that these were not meant to be hurtful, but the fact that people would say them were hurtful.  This whole part of the conversation made me realize that I've probably made those comments in my lifetime, and that not everyone could shake it off as she has apparently done. Awareness....

I was SO excited when I got to speak with her, but I kept my excitement to a minimum (not wanting her to feel like she's ALWAYS in the spotlight) and I tried to ask questions that would be sensitive and educational on my part, hoping that she would mention some of the things that we've read about and learned from our guest speakers. I loved this brief encounter and actually look forward to visiting with her every 3 weeks when I get my brows done! :)