Chapter 3 Enhancing Cultural Proficiency

Chapter three is all about our own cultural proficiency and how we view different people and situations. Exercise 3.5 in the book looks solely at what is your culture and helping us our culture and where we came from. It really allowed me to look at how we are all different and realizing what as influenced me as well. It was something I had never thought about before. Growing up in the suburbs and just being what I thought was normal. I always thought about how people were different from me and not how I was different from other people and how my environment had shaped me. That was one of the main things I got from this chapter, is that I am different than others and I need to see that as well.

Josh did a really great job of speaking on this topic in class on thursday. The most impactful thing for me that we did was where we looked at a list of values and chose ones that we thought were most prominent in our lives. The three that I ended up choosing were faith, love, and joy. Before going into the class and seeing that list if you would have had me choose what three values I thought were most important, those probably would have been my three choices. Throughout my life, there has been nothing more important to me then those three things. If I was going to add one more, it would have to be hope. Without the hope that I have in something more than this world, I would have broken down years ago. Sometimes I don't understand how people can live life without hope.

This chapter was my favorite chapter so far because it allowed me to really look at my life and see how it will help me be a mentor. I know everyone is different, and I can't wait to hear what values other people have and how their lives have been impacted by those values.

Sam Hausler