Imagine you look into a box full of gumballs in which all the gumballs are of identical color, except one.

Your eyes are permeated with one strong, fiery color of red but immediately a blue gumball stands out in the pile.

You wonder how it came there and why it is blue in color while all of them are red.

You automatically feel that someone might have put it by mistake, and it does not belong in that box, so you take it out.

At that right point, you might think that it does not belong there since it is different from everyone. These are some of prejudices or biases that we might grew up or do not think about it regularly when we make statements or decisions.

In today’s world, you are expected to follow the normalcy of the society and you would rather follow the people instead of standing out different. This is what I felt when I landed in United States for the first time. When I came to Iowa State, it wasn’t a cakewalk in the beginning. The orientations are always there to guide us but sometimes we’re all a little confused as a freshman. I was overwhelmed with everything during Destination Iowa State and how much this university had to offer.

Through my small groups, I got the opportunity to talk to people some of who were natives to Iowa and the rest were out of state students. A lot of them seemed interested in where I came from and why did I even want to go to Iowa State. The first couple of questions/statements that I heard were:  

“You must be very good at Mathematics and Physics.”

 “Oh, what kind of engineering are you studying?”

They had their biases in their head that since the color of my skin was brown, they assumed that I was good in Math and I probably came here to study engineering.

I corrected so many people about the fact that I was genetics major and how proud I was to pursue such a beautiful major. At that moment, I realized I was different, and I had to stand for the people who do not follow the general norm.

I have always believed that every student has a story and every story needs to be told. I also believed that despite our similarities we come from diverse backgrounds and that diversity should make the cyclone family unique. I knew that I had to hold my identities very firmly throughout my student experience here at Iowa State and how amazing of an adventure it was going to be.

Throughout my time here, I got the opportunity to get involved in various leadership opportunities and interact with such a huge variety of identities. I was so happy with the opportunities that I received throughout to share my side of the story that I was more than my skin color and I was different from the general norm of the society that brown skin colored people usually pursue engineering.

Through these experiences, I was able to motivate a lot of international students to come out and share their story which is what motivated me even more to do something big. It pushed me to aim high and reach a brighter, larder audience because I knew that there were still some students out there that did not feel like this place belonged to them.

It also made me understand the importance of my own identities and how important it was to keep them intact and be proud of who I was. People still ask me some of the above questions to this day but I have realized that I am no longer that blue gumball in a box but a human being. I feel that I am more than the superstitions of the people.

I am more than just my skin color.