One of the things I enjoy most about my decision to stay in the state of Maryland for college is that here at Towson I get to meet people from all over the state. Meeting people from my own county (Montgomery) as well as other counties such as Carroll, Allegeny, and Hartford to name a few, has opened my eyes to some of the unique racial and ethnic demographics of where I grew up. Silver Spring is located just outside the D.C. border. This means that people from literally all over the world visit and move to the area. Within a block of each other you can get authentic Itallian, Greek, Indian and Jamaican food.
In grade school I was used to a rough racial breakdown of about 35% Latino, 25% White, 25% Black and about 15% other (Asian, Indian, pacific Islander etc). With this approximate demographic being the norm for just about all of my childhood, I had come to the belief that white people were just another race and not the majority.
When I got to Towson, I was quite surprised when I realized that white students made up the bulk of the population. It felt strange not to be in one of the smaller racial categories. What was even stranger was that when I started making friends with white students from other counties I was shocked to find out that by their standards, Towson was much more racially diverse than their town of origin.
I feel spoiled in many ways by the fact that I have been in such diverse settings my whole life. After realizing that in most of the country, whites are the overwhelming majority of the population, I just cannot see myself moving to many parts of this great Nation for fear of living in a culturally sterile environment.
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