Diversity, Mr Cultural Shock and the Hangover...

Diversity and Cultural Shock…these 2 words can go together or separately…but both are related to a common experience:”open yourself to something different from the origin”.

Since I was child I always had the curiosity to discover “the new”. During the past years, this attitude remained the same…places and locations instead are constantly changing. It’s there where I met for the first time Mr “Cultural Shock”.

But, let’s go step by step

Diversity. Having to choose a definition I would describe diversity as “all the qualities or feelings that distinguish 2 different things, people or cultures”. Some people are scared about diversity, some people love it, some people live for it. For sure, being in a Century in which low cost flights, high speed connection, social networking, multinational business, worldwide interests... represent our “daily bread”, nobody can avoid getting in touch with diversity. The reason is simple: even if you decide to remain in your local environment, at certain point somebody will knock at your door…. and it’s not the “old tomato of your backyard’ but the “well travelled mango from South America”…

Depending on its entity and level, diversity can chose Mr. Cultural Shock as travel-mate. You can find several books and theories on this topic but I prefer to simplify this concept in 3 main moments:

1. Getting in contact with “the new”. Usually this is a “discovering” moment, exciting and funny for the most. Depending where you are, and if change has been promoted by you or by others, it can last from few minutes until several months.

2. After what I call “hangover”, people start to see and feel things for what they truly are: DIFFERENT. This is probably the most difficult part. Time to regret your origins and complaint about the habits and events happening in the new environment.

3. Regardless if you are now back to the starting point or you are still part of that “melting pot”, the last part is the one in which things are appreciated again. They have “their own logic”. Some of them will become part of your routine, some others will position themselves as “nostalgic” knowledge that you will always carry-on with you. The reality is that you just expanded your horizons and your views with few additional miles….

The beauty of this process is that more things you discover, far you need to go to meet a new “Mr Cultural Shock”. Not bad and surely inviting for a person who like traveling but also for whoever is a lover of local traditions….be ready to open your door…somebody is knocking again at the door….at this time is not your old tomato, neither the south American Mango….but a new friend from Sri-Lanka called Rambutan…

Enjoy diversity; Love it… live for it