I learned a lot about the different people I spoke with in the session. Through the one on one breakout rooms I was able to connect with two different people who I learned were a lot more similar to me than I had expected. One of the girls I spoke with was so similar to me. We were both first generation americans who were not strongly connected to religion from a young age. This made me really change my perspective and disproved assumptions I had made prior to our conversation.
After this session I realized that I make a lot of assumptions about people before I even meet them. It’s not that I’m making negative assumptions or anything, but they still sort of get in the way of what I’m expecting the person to say. Something I’d like to work on after being in this session is actively making less assumptions about people before they speak. I think it’s really important to just let things sort of happen without any of the premeditated thoughts. I feel like this will allow me to connect with people on a different level without the hesitation I feel when I make these unnecessary assumptions.