On Friday, November 10, Fossil Ridge High School celebrated its annual Diversity Day during Advisory. Students participated in a series of activities in order to get to know one another. The event is centered around breaking down barriers and encourages students to understand more of their peers’ individual stories.

The theme of the day was “sonder,” a word meaning the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own. Students were encouraged to talk about personal experiences and get down to the real stuff – their hopes, dreams, and fears for the future.

“Diversity day to me means taking the time to listen to and get to know the people you are around every day.  You don’t have to like everyone you are around, but you should still treat everyone with respect and kindness,” said freshman, Lauren Gouldey.

The class began with a forty minute documentary, courtesy of Ridge TV, that featured five students representing the diversity that Fossil has to offer. “It helps to actually see what we’re talking and to show that people are different. It’s hard to say that through words, it’s easier to say ‘Look at how diverse this person is,’” said TV co producer Jazz Reynolds.

The documentary was followed by games and activities arranged by Fossil’s Diversity Leadership Awareness (DLA) class. The purpose of this class is to build inter-Fossil relationships and create a culture that all students can feel a part of.

Two of these activities involved sticky notes and paper chains. First, students were given two sticky notes and asked to write something that made them feel respected and something that make them feel accepted at Fossil. These were then stuck to windows in the east wing under their respective category.

Following this, students wrote insecurities about themselves and compliments about their partners on strips of paper and chained them together with the rest of their advisory. Two students were selected to bring the class’s chain the the east wing so that it could be stapled to the rest of the school’s classes’.

“By listening you learn so much about other people that you would have never known before, and you learn so much about yourself as well…it opens your eyes and you realize that you really don’t know a person or what they are going or have gone through.” reflected Jasmine Lopez, a sophomore. Each year, Diversity Day is a rewarding experience for all students who are willing to put in the effort to make new friends.