A Spoonful of Differences

I hope that by saying I'm returning to the States a different person, I won't be accused of perjury. I'm not trying to say I'm a completely different person, I don't think 2 months is enough for that, but I've experienced a lot in 2 months, and all of it was outside the bubble.

I knew what poverty was when I came to France, but I didn't ever imagine it would be something I would witness every day as I walked past beggars and homeless people on the streets. I knew what isolation was, in definition, but I never imagined I would get to embrace it in a way devoid of religion in the visits I paid to lonely, old ladies whose own kids don't come to visit often or at all. I knew what discontent was, but I didn't expect to see it in the faces of so many people every day.

Saturday night I went to a Young Adult dance at the Institute building. There we were, all 50 some young adults dancing cleanly to appropriate music. It's not really a unique sight, unless you count that it's happening in the center of Paris, in the walls of a chapel turned dance hall, and the fact that all the YA there had been looking forward to this dance all summer. LDS Young Adults are different. Some will call us bizarre for not smoking or drinking or participating in crude humor and maybe that does make us bizarre. While our wholesome activity was going on, not even a hundred yards away down the street, people were celebrating with raucuous drinking and dancing, the final night of gay pride week. Many people headed home drunk that night, down the streets of St Merri, but a small group of young, modestly-dressed young people were also on that street, heading to their homes knowing that they had a fulfilling evening of dance and socialisation that they were going to remember in the morning.

I am very blessed to belong to a church that teaches their members to have integrity no matter what their environments. I was able to see how adults my age were able to stand strong and immovable despite constant temptation to the contrary. I learned that distance does not make responsibility and integrity any less important and I respect the YA of the Paris area for teaching me that by their examples. I also learned what it was to live your work. One of salariés (payed employees) at my office was truly loved by the people she worked with because she so completely made it her business to serve them. Nothing was affected in the way she interacted with them, and the people she touched learned they could rely on her warmth and consideration.

It seemed the more I got to know the French, whether they were my peers or colleagues, I came to realized that they are beleaguered by the same everyday problems as me and have the same basic good desires as well. They were accepting of me, not out of tolerance, but as a friend who they could learn from and teach. My hope is that I can mirror this in the way I interact with people of all nationalities, races, and faiths in the future.