Diversity Day leaves a long lasting impact

Photo+Credit%3A+Kaitlyn+Philavanh

Photo Credit: Kaitlyn Philavanh

Avree Linee

On Friday, November 10, Fossil Ridge High School held its annual Diversity Day. This year, the leadership for the event mainly revolved around one word: Sonder. According to the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, the definition of the word sonder is “the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own.” Everyone a part of this process pushed to incorporate this in the video and lesson plan so it was explored throughout the day. Leadership’s goal was to start the conversations so that people would finally begin to recognize that every person has their own story, every person has had many experiences that have led the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own. Sometimes, the world can seem really bad, but as organizer/TV teacher Mr. Gallagher describes it, “every issue in the world is a lack of compassion”. This Diversity Day, Fossil strived to fill that gap, because every time you really listen to someone and care about them and their story, you are filling the world with good, and that is exactly what Fossil strove to do.

The disconnect between the intended purpose and the outcome was very small this year. Many students were very engaged in lesson plans and felt they connected to the subjects in the video. Kristin Reed commented about her advisory only having five people in it. She felt that everyone in the room actually cared about the experience and that they all felt closer afterwards. One advisory scheduled to do the “Hot Seat” activity for two minutes the beginning of every class they have. That advisory felt that Diversity Day shouldn’t just be one day, that we should spend everyday recognizing other people’s stories. Evan Curren stated, “99% of us is the same, yet we spend so much of our time focusing on the 1% that makes us different, and instead of focusing on what makes us different and attacking each other for that, we should be celebrating that and I really think that’s what this day is for.”

Of course, in every activity that you do with a school of 2,000 students, there are going to be some people who refuse to participate, and there are going to be some students that do not find meaning in the day. There were multiple advisories that did not have the same impactful experiences than other advisories. Although this is very unfortunate, the leaders of today hope that the students who did get meaning out of Diversity Day will share their experiences and impact the school in a positive way. After TV putting in over 300 hours into this experience, and Diversity Leadership Awareness putting countless hours in and out of class, the leaders hope you had a fantastic and meaningful day. If you have any suggestions for next year, feel free to let TV know so next year can be even greater.