Citizen of the World

To me, cosmopolitanism means accepting and celebrating differences. It's difficult to do this unless you are a “citizen of the world”, like we’ve talked about in class. I find it’s much harder to understand this without going out into the world and experiencing all it has to offer. After living in London for three months, I feel like I more fully understand what people are saying when they mention how cosmopolitan the city is. There are people from all over the world speaking different languages, eating from restaurants featuring diverse and unique food, and cultural celebrations happening where everyone can experience them. People are coming together to live in this great city, but that doesn’t mean they are living the same life. Understanding this is important. We need to learn to accept the different ways of living and the fact that there is not one right way. And along with this, we need to allow ourselves to accept and experience the cultures people bring to us.

We’ve had the opportunity to travel all over Great Britain and experience different cultures, religions and ways of life. Some of the most significant experiences for me were our religious excursions to the London mosque and Hindu temple. In the mosque, our tour guide was a man who was previously Catholic and had converted to Islam. We watched the prayer service and observed those coming to worship. These people were not all the same -- they didn’t all wear the same clothes or belong to the same race or ethnicity, but they were coming together to worship in a way that they liked. Similarly, we watched a prayer service in the Hindu temple, read about Hinduism and had our questions answered by a tour guide, finding that the beliefs of Hindus and Latter-Day Saints were not quite as different as I expected. Seeing these buildings in the middle of London, being used and worshipped in and respected, was a huge testament to the cosmopolitan nature of London.

I saw this in my LDS ward as well. The gospel is the same all around the world, but the people are not. The church has many diverse and unique members on every continent, bringing their own culture and experiences into the church. My ward had many African immigrants who had come to live in England. Although they practice the same religion and have similarities with other members of the ward, they also bring with them new perspectives and ways of thinking. Participating in the ward helped me more fully understand what it is like to be a citizen of the world, since there were lots of representatives from all over the world in an environment where I could associate with and get to know them.

Experiencing these diverse religions and cultures has helped me understand that although we may live and think different ways, we are all people who have the same wants and needs. And experiencing the differences within the church -- finding people who still live the gospel to the fullest and are different from me -- helps me realize how enlightening and refreshing it is to learn from those who come from diverse cultures and bring new perspectives. It is part of my duty as a Latter Day Saint to accept everyone and love people despite our differences, and I believe that experiencing this cosmopolitan city has definitely helped in my understanding of that.

Learning about and experiencing the diversity of London people during this program has made me more open to going out into the world and encountering new countries, cultures, people and ways of thinking. I find the more well-traveled a person is, the more understanding and cosmopolitan they become (I have my own experience to justify this, and I’m sure it’s true for many others). I fully intend on keeping this attitude the rest of my life, and doing things to enhance it. I want to help my family and friends understand this as well, but it’s difficult when you don’t get to spend a lot of time outside of your daily life, surrounded mainly by people who are just like you and share your same rituals, traditions, lifestyle and beliefs. I intend to find ways to embrace the diversity back home, however little it may be, and show those around me how much the cosmopolitan mindset can add to our lives. Hopefully I can try to share my experiences and examples I’ve seen during this trip with my family, and the way I live can influence them. I am grateful I have had three months to experience a cosmopolitan way of life, and hope I can bring it back to where I live and build on the foundation of my experiences at the Legendary London Centre.