<p>Any feedback and revisions would help a ton. Thanks</p>
<p>PROMPT: The quality of Rice’s academic life and the Residential College System are heavily influenced by the unique life experiences and cultural traditions each student brings. What perspective do you feel that you will contribute to life at Rice? </p>
<pre><code> In his poem “Hawk Roosting,” Ted Hughes describes how a hawk views world:
I sit in the top of the wood, my eyes closed.
Inaction, no falsifying dream
…
The air’s buoyancy and the sun’s ray
Are of advantage to me;
And the earth’s face upward for my inspection.
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<p>A hawk perceives the world differently than any other animal. It soars through the skies as it scans the ground for prey. The raptor observes the world on two levels, land and air, while other animals only attend to their immediate environment. Just as a hawk’s life revolves around its environment, a human’s life is centered on his culture. Unlike hawk’s dual perspective, most humans are raised in one culture. Growing up in two different cultures has given me a dual perspective, like a hawk.</p>
<pre><code>A hawk observes unique aspects of the world that most people do not. Living in two cultures has given me the opportunity to visit my motherland, India, numerous times. When I visit India I do not stay in lavish hotels, visit luxurious white beaches, or even view the luminous Taj Mahal. I stay with my cousins and see the genuine side of India. My cousins live in a small suburb of India, called Nandad, where they do not have all the luxuries that we have in America. Upon visiting India I can recall one unforgettable memory. As my mother and I walked along the dirt road we saw children walking barefoot in the scorching heat on their way to school. We passed countless people who had purposely disabled themselves to acquire pity as they begged for just a minuscule amount of money. Most people in their whole lifetime do not get to see this poverty stricken part of the world, but I did at the age of 7. There is nothing wrong with the lifestyle that there is in India but it is completely different from that of America. As I advanced through my life I realized these differences and this in turn gives me a great attribute, the ability to easily accept others who are different. I am not saying that people who are brought up in one culture cannot accept others who are different, of course they can. But if you have lived in the middle of two cultures your whole life it makes it a great deal easier to accept others for who they are. As a hawk glides through the sky it witnesses all the animals in their individual environments. From deserts to forests, it views the globe and accepts the world as it is.
It is easier for a person who has lived in two cultures because they have a hybrid or variable perspective on life. A hybrid perspective is a perspective that integrates two cultures viewpoints and way of life into one. In my life there is one way to do something at school but a different way to do it at home. In school I speak, write, and read in English but at home I speak fluent Hindi with my family. The reason I include this is because it shows how there is a different way of carrying out tasks in both cultures. The perspective I hold gives me the ability to distinguish the fact that there is more then one way to perform, experience, and believe in something. There is more then one manner to view the world; there is room in the universe for many perspectives.
The experience and knowledge I have gained from my cultural familiarity aids me in integrating each of my cultures perspectives into a single one, which allows for far greater understanding and usefulness. In the Residential Colleges at Rice I plan on using my understanding, which stems from the ability to accept others and distinguish the countless ways to perceive, to promote cultural diversity. At Rice I hope to use my unique multicultural identity to dissolve boundaries and unite people, regardless of race, nationality, interests, or backgrounds. At the same time, I look forward to having my fellow peers be able to view the world just as I do, through the eyes of a Hawk.
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