From the South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Being different empowers you.

By Sarah Amos
St. Thomas Aquinas

April 10 2008

Most individuals are but a mere repetition of one another.

Take a stroll down main street suburbia and you find the same type of house multiplied across the neighborhood, complete with mom, dad, two kids, a golden retriever and a SUV.

Fortunately, most of us don't have a Stepford mom, and we live in an area that celebrates its uniqueness.

The benefit of living in a diverse community is embracing the differences that occur in the real world, not the one we artificially create. Being different empowers you with more tools to use in a varied world.

After all, the rest of America isn't straight, 5-foot-9, blond hair and blue-eyed.

Through School House Rock, we learned about the great American melting pot. Like fondue, when the Swiss melts with the American, different flavors can yield unexpected and pleasing results.

The only trouble is, a melting pot suggests that peoples cultures and differences completely mix together, blurring the lines of their differences. That might sound like a great idea, but it breeds homogeneity.

South Florida, a community unusual for its diversity, brings real-world opportunities to those of us still in high school.

We encounter people ethnically and culturally diverse. This combination of Latin American and Caribbean influence distinguishes us from other U.S. cities.

Also, South Florida, an area with a large homosexual population, benefits from the tourism industry generated by from this diversity.

We in South Florida should embrace our uniqueness, not snub it off as "weird," "different" or "gay."

I would much rather live in a culturally diverse city, after all. Where else can you get jerked chicken, pad Thai, gelato and Cuban coffee all on one street?