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PREJUDICE-REDUCING
EXPERIENCE BACKGROUND Some new neighbors moved in across the way-two women and a girl. The women made it clear that they were a couple. My dad, being old fashioned, made it no secret to us that he was unhappy about this. My mom, of course, was worried that he may influence me. I have a pretty strong personality so she knew I would be able to form my own opinions. Those two women influenced me based solely on their behavior. I stereotyped all homosexuals into one category. I later realized how stupid this was and how easily we do this. I feel fortunate that I learned from this, even if it was hard to deal with at the time. I feel very fortunate because my parents raised me to formulate my own opinions. The did not try to instill their prejudices into me, and if I ever questioned them, they explained their reasonings and helped me see past their experiences. One thing that I grew up believing was that only families that were "weird" had serious problems. I unfortunately learned the hard way that this was not the case. In my own family we had a case of a child molestation. I was fortunate in the fact that it was not my immediate family. Nonetheless, I soon learned that all families were susceptible to bad things. At this point I realized that "weird" families are not the only ones with problems. This was a hard realization and even harder learning to cope with the tragedy.
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When
I was around the age of eight, I was living in Riverside,
CA. We had just moved there and were living in an apartment
complex. I felt lucky because the pool was right in front of
our place. In fact, I had a perfect view of it. I love to
swim, so this was a big plus for me.