#impact others

I was asked to write a letter for future foreign teachers at Hegang Number one High School and thought I would share it with you:

I can’t even explain how incredibly grateful I am that my boyfriend, Jon, was able to make is first ever international trip and visit me. What I really loved, was watching his eyes open to a new culture and everyone here use his visit to learn more about the USA as well.
One night we had dinner with two of my students and they told Jon they saw on the news that a boy was shot by the police in the states. And they asked why and what it was about. It opened up a great topic about race in the U.S. and we told the students that in the states black people aren’t always treated the same as the white people and life is harder for a black person in the states. We told them different things that make life unfair for blacks in America. One of my students just couldn’t wrap his head around it, “why?”, he kept asking. “Just because of their skin color?”, “That is so horrible!”. My student told me that the only thing he can compare that to is the poor people on China and sometimes people judge them and ridicule them.

If you don’t know Jon or can tell from the pictures, he is a 6'4" black man. When I told him he would get stares when he visited he said he wasn’t worried because he gets stared at a lot, especially when he walks somewhere in the U.S. that is mostly white. But Hegang was different. Yes he got stares… Lots of stares… But none of them had any kind of judgment or unkindness behind them, people stared because they were genuinely curious, and he knew that. And that’s huge that he was able to experience that. I know there will be a lot for him to digest (and of course me too when I get home). But I am so glad he was willing to travel across the world to visit me and affect the minds and lives of people here while allowing them to impact him as well, because that’s what travel is all about.