Page 17 - Reflections on the Danger of a Single Story

Growing up in a middle class, rural area, I had very little notion of others perception of me. I don’t think I ever thought about what it was like to grow up in small town Pennsylvania compared to others in the world. Even in high school, when I realized there were other opinions, religions, and ways of life, I didn’t really think about how others would perceive me as a “single story”. It wasn’t until college that I thought about how others may perceive me. I remember as a freshman in West Virginia when I introduced myself to people, the first thing they would ask is about high school. My very small catholic school was a huge surprise to everyone I told. I grew up with the same 14 students from elementary to high school. When I told everyone I went to Catholic School everyone assumed my story. It wasn’t the fact that what they thought was or was not true, it was the idea that they had assumed who I was without getting to know me. After a while I stopped telling people my background and where I was from, not because I was ashamed, I just didn’t people to stop assuming they knew who I was without first getting to know me.
Growing up every book I read, person I saw, and movie I watched was very prevalent to my life. I loved the Danger of Single Story Video because it really makes you think about the perception of cultures in the media. To be honest, I lived in such a small world that I never really thought about other people’s stories until I grew much older. This may seem naive to many people, but for the first 18 years of my life I only knew small town Pennsylvania. When I traveled to New York City with my family in 2002 I was terrified. I had never been to such a big city or experienced so many different people in a such a small area. This was right after 9/11 and I thought New York was the scariest place in the world. There were so many police everywhere with guns pointing in all directions. There were people in the streets begging for money and we saw more than a few drug deals. This was the single story of New York I had maintained for the next 15 years of my life. I was perfectly happy to never set foot in the city again. Fifteen years later I made my way to Manhattan and fell in love with the absolute perfection of the chaotic city. My single story about New York being dirty, scary, or even violent, changed forever. As any young adult, my experiences in life shaped my values. I viewed the single story of New York in a completely new light at the age of 26 instead of the age of 12, my new single story of New York is one of hope and joy.
KATHERINE ERICH