Growing Up Together: Friends from Different Backgrounds

Debbie, Mike and Anthony

Do you recall your childhood friends?  I especially remember my grade school group of friends.  Debbie and Mike were the only two Hispanic children at our school.  They lived in migrant housing at the local greenhouse.  I didn’t know that when I met them. Even if I had known, I wouldn’t have understood what that meant. I was eight.  I was invited over to their home for Debbie’s birthday. That is when I learned their lives were very different from mine. Their parents barely spoke English. Debbie and I hit it off. We liked the same shows and the same hobbies. We just got each other. Mike was her cousin and a wonderful artist and writer. Mike was a bit shy but a very creative and talented artist.

Anthony was the only African American boy in our school. He loved to draw and write stories. We all fit together as I loved to write and direct plays. My art skills were modest. But I was nowhere as talented as Mike or Anthony. As a team, we developed a play together. We performed it for our class back in the third grade.

We hung together every recess, often sitting out under a tree with our paper and pencils.  We were young and innocent and never judged each other based on our homes or upbringings.  I came from a large family of modest means. A father who worked multiple jobs and a mom that was a full-time homemaker.

I was fortunate to grow up in diversity. I never seemed to identify people by how they looked. I felt people, I saw them from the inside, their spirit, their soul.  When people would comment about their new hair cut or that they had recently lost weight, I never really noticed. I saw people for their personality, their kindness and what they were made up of on the inside.

Debbie, Mike and Anthony were good people. Kind, talented, reserved with very good hearts. I do hope they have found peace and acceptance. Today, the world is too judgmental. We put people in silos. We do not see them for the talent, soul, and spirit they embody. Don’t get wrapped up in the hate. Learn to love and see the beauty in all.