What’s Your Story?

Key words and phrases:

Virtually: almost, nearly

bump/run into: meet by chance

ethnic diversity: the presence of people from a variety of cultural and ethnic backgrounds or identities

unconscious bias: social stereotypes about certain groups of people

trivial: small, unimportant

assumption: an idea that accepted to be true although there is no evidence to support it

I grew up in a small rural town in Canada. I am proud of where I come from and truly enjoyed growing up in a small community. It was virtually impossible to make a trip to the supermarket or anywhere in the community without bumping into someone you knew. Sadly, my town had very little ethnic diversity so it was not until I moved away to attend school that I became fully aware of how diverse the world really was. But, at the same time, to my surprise, people were very much the same.

For lunch the other day I had a pirozhki, which, as you may know is a boat-shaped bun that is a popular street food in both Russia and the Ukraine. A nice winter food to warm you up on the inside. While enjoying this meat-fill treat, I thought about a food truck in my hometown that makes great French fries and how people all over the world love to eat hand-held foods like hamburgers in the US and nikuman in Japan…(obviously, I need to work on my own unconscious biases!) This got me thinking about how people differ in so many ways based on culture, religion and ethnicity to name a few, and yet we are not all that different. We all enjoy laughter and a meal shared with friends and family, and we have the same basic needs like shelter, safety and a sense of belonging. In fact, when we focus on sameness, I mean really look at our basic needs and the things that motivate us, we soon realize that the differences are rather trivial.

With that, I reminded myself that we must avoid making assumptions about anyone based on where they come from until we have taken the time to actually get to know them and hear their story; we all have a story. If we had the time and opportunity to do so, we would find all of the things that make us more alike rather than different. So, what’s your story?

Wishing you health and happiness always.

Mark Tofflemire

Tailor Made Inc.