Dhathri Chunduru

   I have been at Webb since eighth grade and inevitably I’ve grown emotionally and mentally. And maybe I would have grown just as much even if I wasn’t here, but I can attribute a lot to Webb because this has been my environment for most of my adolescence. I’ve seen a lot of changes and experienced lots of different things, positive and negative, but a side effect of being here for so long is that I have become extremely critical of everything: The community, my classmates, my teachers, and of Webb in general. The thing that is so blatantly apparent in this institution is  the oppressive atmosphere of the community. Sure, we have cultural, religious, and geographic diversity, but there’s a different type of diversity that our community severely lacks. Open-mindedness. There are certain issues like homosexuality that our community does not openly discuss because of the unfamiliarity and uncomfortable ness that surrounds these issues. No one wants to be the freak; the one that speaks up when he’s offended or sticks out because of his beliefs but sometimes being the freak is the only way to set things straight.

    I can’t speak for everyone in this chapel but I can speak on my behalf. I have either said or heard someone use words like gay and fag and chink and spic and fat and ugly and even if it wasn’t me who said it, if I laughed at the joke or ignored the comment, then I was just as prejudiced as the person who said it. We have all been guilty of being perpetrating or tolerating prejudice at one point, but its not permanent, we can change it.  

    When I first came to Webb, I was basically left to fend for myself. Middle school was the worst period of time for me. Webb’s environment, for me at least, suffocated me until I molded to the standard, the status quo. The preppy, giggly, girl that pretended to be interested in a conversation about shoes and made fun of that strange kid in class. I did many things back then simply because I wasn’t comfortable with who I was. It’s not like I know who I am right now, but I’ve grown in the sense that I no longer care about searching for who I am, or fitting in, instead I’ve just become comfortable in my own skin.

    Discrimination based on race and sexuality is not the only type of prejudice. Prejudice exists in all forms and all shapes and we are all biased towards something. But, for every bias, there is a counter-bias. There is someone else who take the opposite stance than you do. In any case, the point is that the only way to become completely open-minded is to abandon all of our biases, but this is impractical. We cannot simply forget everything that makes us who we are, so the only progressive solution would be to put aside our biases for just a moment and think about things from someone else’s perspective. We are all much too young to already make up our minds about issues like homosexuality, and Latinos, and obesity, and poverty. Toleration of others is not enough, we must accept them.

    There are so many underlying tensions in this school. Some people are afraid of being judged; Some hide behind walls disguised as popularity, and wealth, so they won’t have to deal with themselves. But mainly, many of us are just much too preoccupied with finding our places that we tend to overlook the fact that it is just high school. In a few weeks, we seniors will leave and probably never see most of the people in this chapel again. But for the rest of you, for the time that you are here, rather than spending it figuring out your place in this messed up social status obsessed environment, try and become comfortable with yourselves and maybe we won’t take refuge in making others uncomfortable. In the end, its just high school, and we move on, and we grow, and hopefully, we become better people.