Dr. Jim Gantt, a past teacher at Lake Forest High School, holds a rich legacy of accepting difference and promoting tolerance. As stated in the Jim Gantt Memorial Scholarship, Gantt is remembered for “advocat[ing] on behalf of all students regardless of color, class, social background, or academic level.” In memory of Jim Gantt, I’d like to write about how his memory relates to my own experience with such values through my travels and pursuit of encouraging these values in the next chapter of my life.
Since I was 5 years old, I spent nearly 2 weeks of every summer in my grandparents’ modest home in Italy that belonged to them during their impoverished childhoods. Located in northern Italy, my ancestral home is tucked away in the Apennine mountains of Emilia Romagna in the small town of Piandelagotti. Not only does my home in Italy radiate the history of my family--as the physical house that we stay in is where my grandfather was born and raised during World War 2--but the town itself is the birthplace of my 2 other grandparents and stores the culture I come from. With each visit, I’m reminded of the importance of tradition and am constantly colliding with diverse customs and perspectives.
Growing up with such a unique experience, I’ve learned to appreciate the exposure to the different cultures and lifestyles that my parent’s thrusted me into. The wealth of these experiences has completely shifted my worldview and turned me into the person I am today. During these visits to Italy, I’m less of a tourist and more of a resident. I adopt a European way of life and confront customs that may be conceived as different and uncomfortable in America. A sometimes uncomfortable task for me is the amount of time I spend around the elderly. I’m constantly sitting down at cafes or visiting houses of older people to converse with adults. It is extremely difficult to get past the language barrier and adopt the wisdom of the elderly population around you. It is also challenging to integrate myself into Italian values and customs. For example, I find myself participating in the pasaigata and riposo, which are times in the day dedicated to rest and walking around town with your family. What is especially difficult for me is finding my way through the crowd of young adults my age and adopting their social norms and values. I learn to seek pleasure in spending time conversing with kids in piazzas, playing soccer scrimmages out in the fields, learning Italian card games, hiking for wild berries in the mountains, and visiting with each other by doing activities outdoors. With this said, what I’ve learned while living in one of the poorest towns in the mountains is to do with less and appreciate what you have. Instead of spending all my free time with my friends like I do in America, during Ferragosto, the Italian summer holiday, I would walk in the town procession with my grandfather as we honor the town saint. Italians deeply value their Roman Catholic heritage and although I felt as if I did not fit in, being that I was born and raised in America, I still supported my grandfather and participated in their Ferragosto traditions, radiating these foreign customs.
I’ve not only been exposed to such differences in Italy, but throughout travels to other places I have gained a cultural tolerance for diversity in general. When my family visited Portugal, we stumbled upon a poorer village that was having a bonfire celebration for the Epiphany. As different as this celebration was to what I was accustomed to on Christmas, it was unique to celebrate different holidays with different customs and different people. In Jamaica, we celebrated Jamaica day by trying Jamaican foods and fruits native to Jamaica. We learned how they use crops to produce natural makeup products, took part in indigenous dances, and learned about the history of the land. We celebrated difference yet again with a tour in Tangier that gave us a long history of the city and the impact of Islam on the country’s practices and heritage.
Now, more than ever as I’m yet again provided with more opportunities by my parents, and high school is slowly moving into the rearview mirror, I’m realizing that college can become a place for me to yet again discover these values that mean so much to me. For me, college means coming in contact with diverse people, ideas, perspectives, and backgrounds. Not only will I be able to meet people coming from different corners of the United States, but I intend to meet international people from all different corners of the world. Cultural collisions with food, lifestyles, ideas, and more means so much to me to broaden my perspective on other cultures. Throughout high school, some of my best friends have been people that come from diverse nations and celebrate their heritage at home. I have friends that carry over unique recipes brought from their families in China or Lebanon. I have other friends that celebrate Jewish and Greek Orthodox holidays or are even first generation from countries around the world. Translating this appreciation of the unique fabric that makes up our human race into the classroom, I’ve learned to appreciate high school classes that expose me to different ideas. I find myself fascinated and immersed into the studies of different civilizations and religions in my history classes. Studying Spanish in school and a little bit of Italian in my household unlocks my brain to cultural comparisons, beautiful linguistic expressions, unique traditions and festivities, foreign customs, and culinary differences. Learning about Día de los Muertos and celebrating this holiday with memories of the dead during middle school helped me to tolerate celebrations of death that are unique to Mexican culture and perhaps feared in traditional American culture. And reading diverse novels and authors in my English classes has revealed the beauty of how different backgrounds can contribute to renowned literature and untold stories. Through both my international travels and exposure to unique classes, I’ve been able to confront these differences and find comfort in diversity. In college, I can only see myself broadening these horizons.
I’ll never forget my 8th grade Spanish teacher, Señora Swisher (now retired), who pointed out how these cultural practices that stay intact in America create a unique phenomenon of cultural tolerance and emotional intelligence. Back in eighth grade, it was hard to understand what this meant. But now I realize that in a nation that calls itself a melting pot, I can use my own exchange of perspectives and values to enhance this American metaphor and stir empathy. Beyond that, I can use my cultural intelligence to create compassion among others, especially those perceived as different. Although I never knew Jim Gantt, it seems to me like we may have had a lot in common. With his wisdom in mind, I’ll continue to broaden my cultural horizons both inside and outside the classroom and bring this legacy of Jim Gantt with me wherever I end up in college. Moreover, I intend to spread these values on this travel blog platform with a global audience at hand.
