At our last meeting, My conversation partner and I met outside for a short and sweet conversation. It was just before Thanksgiving, so we talked about holiday traditions with our respective countries. I asked her if they had Halloween where she was from. She responded that they had Halloween, but nowhere near to the extent that we have it. People will have small decorations on their houses, but that is about the extent of it. Children do not dress up and go door to door asking for sweets from total strangers. The most interesting part of this was when she explained the most likely reason why this was. She said that in her country, the streets are not safe enough for children to be out wandering at night, even accompanied by a parent.
At first my reaction to this was how is that possible. What kind of country would one live in where you can’t walk down the street at night with your children. Then I took a second and rethought the whole thing. I realized that there are neighborhoods in our cities now that are like that. I think of Halloween in my neighborhood at home. Carloads of kids are trucked in to trick or treat in better neighborhoods. I thought of the places where some of my classmates from high school grew up. Not all of our neighborhoods in America are like those where me and the majority of other TCU students grew up in. Many are unsafe and dangerous. Sometimes all it takes is a little perspective on what the truth really is to realize what a person is saying and where they are from. If you look at things from another angle, sometimes you can find a whole other side to the story.
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