“Diversity” by Ryan S. — University of Texas at Austin, Economics

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“I’ll start talking to you when you start hitting” yelled one of my teammates to the other. We all came from different corners of Texas to play baseball, and we all had different ethnic and economic backgrounds. The season had dredged on for over 2 weeks, and we had only won 3 of our 10 games. After a couple more bitter exchanges, the game ended.

I sat disheartened trying to think of how to get everyone to work together. The group text had become toxic, so I texted each teammate individually to invite them to explore downtown Houston with me. As everyone arrived, I received some dirty looks when they discovered the whole rotten team was there, but I didn’t let it ruin my plan. We would be renting scooters together which was the most cost-effective activity I could think of because I found a coupon. As the evening went on, we not only had a great time but learned about each other. One of the kids who was always late to practice admitted that his family only had one car. Another one barely spoke English which is why he would rarely talk to anyone. All of us were struggling with something. 

     From that night on, everyone understood the differing perspectives that each individual teammate had and began supporting each other. It’s funny how your view of someone can change so quickly when you take the time to understand them. With this new attitude, we began winning more games and winning our next two tournaments as well.  It was interesting that we were all good ball players but could not play together as a team until we understood each other. Our differences challenged us to think beyond our own experiences and broaden our perspectives. We were stronger together. 

I know I won’t always be working with people who have similar beliefs as mine, or a similar mindset to me. No matter who it is, their differences should not interfere with the task at hand. Diversity is beautiful in the fact that it provides millions of different perspectives on a singular topic, which will help a community propel towards a solution. Just as my team struggled with understanding each other and the benefits to diversity, it wasn’t until we embraced our differences that we found success.