The novice flag-bearers

Diversity has always been a defining component of Princeton's undergraduate experience. The administration takes a large amount of pride in the number of students from different backgrounds, countries, religious groups, ethnicities - and the more obscure, the more puffed up the University's chest becomes. So as an American citizen who lives in India and is a member of a religion that has only 150,000 followers left (Zoroastrianism), I walked into this campus feeling interesting. I thought I would be the person whom people would be curious about; I'd be the novelty. And based on the number of questions I've received, from the intelligent "Oh! Wasn't that the religion of the Persian Empire?" to the somewhat less informed "Is the snow warmer in India?" I haven't been disappointed.

I admire the extent to which students are curious about the circumstances of their peers' lives. But I think that as the objects of that curiosity, we all become representatives of our countries and communities in ways we never have been before. And simultaneously, we act as the curious: unconsciously but decisively basing our assessment or knowledge of a community on the individual opinions, actions, accents and habits of the one member we meet at Princeton.

Some of us revel in the newfound authority and responsibility of these roles. Others feel compelled to take on the challenge of defending misconceptions about their country or community: I have witnessed a friend from Sudan repeatedly defend false accusations against Islam. She seems to regard it as her personal mission to correct these mistaken beliefs about where she comes from.

Of course, one has to wonder about the effectiveness of this system of ambassadorship. There are perhaps some common characteristics that people from the same community will share. But it is a little ridiculous to judge a whole nation or people based on just one individual. In fact, perhaps it is a little counterproductive when people assume that they know everything about Chinese culture simply because they have Chinese best friends. These assumptions can promote oversimplified views of foreign cultures, and thus a non-nuanced cultural perspective. It can even lead to misconceptions about foreign culture, the very opposite of the breadth of cultural understanding that the University is trying to infuse in us.

Making one individual the representative of his or her entire country is an onerous responsibility to dump on someone. But I believe that we benefit from our novel function as our nation's flag-bearers. After years of growing up around people with relatively the same beliefs and customs, we are suddenly exposed to the skepticism and puzzlement of an outsider's perspective. We are compelled to probe our long-held beliefs and opinions. Sometimes we find new ways to defend them, and sometimes we change them. But either way, we end up with stronger convictions that are based on our own thoughts, rather than on unchallenged habit.

We all have our own definitions of what is normal and what isn't, dictated largely by where we grew up. But by feeling compelled to consider our identities through the eyes of outsiders, we enhance our comprehension of the ways in which we are similar to and different from the girl from Zimbabwe or the atheist from Toronto. We ultimately develop a greater awareness of who we are and where we come from.

Camille Framroze is a freshman from Bombay, India. She can be reached at framroze@princeton.edu.