After my experience in China and I good re-reading of my first blog:
I still believe that one identity is a representation of the society you were raised in and I am more amazed by this statement, since, while onboard I meet more people like me with a “mix and match” identity and even though, we came from this similar background we had so many differences in ideas and identity.
Now as a recap I am a Venezuelan immigrant, I have a mix and match of values.futher with this, I also want to add that I don’t only come from Venezuela but I come from a family of immigrants. My mother’s side of the family are Italians and my father’s side, are Spanish people that immigrated to Venezuela, fell in love and have this beautiful child that is writing to you and grew half of her life in the United States! I feel that with this any person with have a wide understanding of a “mix and match” identity. this is why I focused more on society than how you were parented because it is vaster than that. and I have a collage to demonstrate it.
One person can see that it will have all kinds of people important to me like familia and friends and food because i found out on this trip that food is an important part of me. Because of this, I would like to be as open-minded as possible with the differences of cultures and identities that people may have. the sole idea that more people in my program were like me demonstrate that the world is involving in something more inclusive and beautiful than ever before and been living proof of it is just mind-blowing. The advantages that I have with this identity have no change I believe. I have not only have become a MORE open-minded person and a hard-worker but also an inclusive one. Furthermore, my “mix and match” identity, has given me the opportunity that I can “mix and match” my values as I grew older. some stick with you forever and others it is easy for you to just decide that’s not what your lifestyle is about and that gives you a chameleon status in the society that you may be. I do am VERY communicative and express what are my perspectives of the world as I viewed it, but also, on this trip, i have found out that i could be wrong and that’s super ok because it allows you to learn and grow and feel good later afterward.
My biggest disadvantage that I have of is that from others perspectives and point of views I still do not have a large image of the others cultures in comparison with my own and that’s why I prefer to be open-minded to anything and everything so I can see what the world can offer me and learned as much as possible from this different cultures as i did with the Chinese culture and my peers. I expected to find a vary of identities, which in china you pretty much get a big one. I did not make a stereotype. I know I said that I thought that Chinese culture focused on the Harmonious and balanced things but I think they have a more harmonious society than as individuals it is like ants each of them has a task and they will do it every single day. I think this can be both an advantage and a disadvantage for them.