Assignment 22 - Anna Baskin

It’s hard to define your personality traits, especially to brag about yourself to colleges, but I think you can at least judge yourself by what traits you aspire to have (only others can tell you whether you succeed or not). One of the traits I’ve always strove to portray is open-mindedness, especially to new cultures and experiences.
I’d like to think this began in elementary school. Going to a Spanish immersion school meant half of my teachers were from outside the US. We learned about the customs and traditions of Mexico, Argentina, Spain, and Chile before we were ten years old, and also had a different perspective on early American history (more teachers told us the unsettling truths of Christopher Columbus and the treatment of Native Americans).
Additionally, I grew up hearing stories from my grandparents, who made it a point of travel as far and as frequently as they could. My favorite stories are always of their time in Korea, where they were expats for multiple years. Their lessons as they navigated a foreign city with no knowledge of the local language or customs were priceless; they taught me to laugh in the face of confusion/awkwardness (expect miscommunications when you attempt to speak Korean in a rolling Southern accent), and to notice and appreciate cultural differences.
More recently, I’ve found that connecting with my mom’s grad students has drastically expanded my world view. As a chemical engineering professor at UK, my mom’s students come from across the globe, often leaving behind family and friends. To connect them, mom will host dinners and parties at our house. Just listening to discussions around the dinner table is astonishing as cultures clash, but with no animosity or defensiveness. Rather, the students love comparing their respective traditions. At the last dinner, I listened to someone from Minnesota, compare wedding traditions with a students from India, Iran, Ghana, and China. Listening to their open-minded, respectful conversation was truly amazing, and just cements open-mindedness as a trait I hope to cultivate.