Looking at Class, Race and Religious Perspectives

Race

When I was young, my parents decided that we would host exchange students on Rotary exchanges and thus I had interaction with different races from an early age. We hosted many students from all over the world for various lengths of time. These experiences will stay with me for years to come.

At the end of last year I had the opportunity to travel overseas on an exchange. I went to Italy, Switzerland and London for seven weeks. It was amazing to experience three different cultures first hand with locals. It taught me to be tolerant with others of different backgrounds and to respect their culture.

Goondiwindi is my hometown. Not far from Goondiwindi there is a small town called Boggabilla and a bit further down a town called Toomelah. These two towns are Indigenous based. Around Goondiwindi they have a bad reputation for criminal activities.

Religion

I was in Italy during the Christmas period of 2005.

Goondiwindi

Victoria Hotel, Goondiwindi, Qld.

[Piazza Navona, Rome, Italy] (LOC)

On Christmas Day, my family at the time took me to church. While we were there, they told me to go to the front and eat bread and drink wine. I refused to do this due to my opposing believes.

While in Italy I saw Venice. While in a church, my host mother prayed and did the cross thing on her chest. She looked at me oddly as I was not doing the same. Instead of being in this church for 'salvation', I was in there for the art and history.

Class

After graduating from secondary school, my father got a welding apprenticeship with a local. He was, to society, a poor tradesman. On the contrary, my parents own their own business thus they are, stereotypically, business people with money.

When at a meeting for my school, my father was talking...