Jul 23rd, 2022 Saturday Stormy
Have you ever watched or participated a “privilege walk”?
The idea is simple: a group of random people standing behind a straight line are told to walk/run towards a finishing line as fast as they can the instant the announcer says “start”. The first person to reach the finishing line will get a reward (usually some sizeable cash amount).
Before this race actually starts, the announcer would give some instructions that symbolizes “privilege” or “disadvantage” in society. For example, “if one or both of your parents graduated from college, take one step forward”, or “if you or your family never had to move due to financial inabilities, take one step forward”, or “if you started school speaking a language other than English, take one step back”. That list of instructions can be long, and by the end of it, some people are already many steps ahead of their peers.
The actual result of the race is not that important. The point is already made in this process of “showing your privilege”: some people are enjoying a life with a lot of privileges not attributable to their own merits, but owing to their family background (racial, socioeconomic, etc.). Thanks to these privileges, some people seem to easily get ahead in life. We should keep in mind this inequity and be more mindful of differences in people.
I agree that this is a very noteworthy lesson. Nevertheless, I cannot help but wonder, is life really a race as the privilege walk signifies? Is life really a race where everyone is trying to achieve the same goal, so that whoever gets there first “wins”?
I do not believe that should be the case. I hope that is NOT the case.
Life should be an individual journey. Everyone may have a completely different starting point, and everyone will likely have a distinct ending point. The voyage between the start and the end may also be unique for each person, such that no two people living their life would have the same life story to tell. Even the seemingly similar experience (e.g. graduating from college) may carry different meanings for different people, depending on where/how it fits in their life.
I was helping at the first-year college student orientation event, where I got to see how diverse the incoming freshmen are. Four years from now, most of the students will be accepting their bachelors’ degrees. However, that moment probably means a lot more to someone who is the first to graduate college in his/her family. Moreover, the memories of this four years are never the same for any two students, even if they happen to live in the same dorm.
Who could say that one student’s college experience is more valuable than that of someone else? Who could determine which student is “more advanced” in life?
This judgment, if it is ever made, is worthless. Just because your roommate gets a higher GPA and receives a job offer that pays more than yours, does not mean his/her life is definitely more worth living than your own. Your path is truly yours.
In a super cute anime called “chi’s sweet home”, when Kochi, a male stray kitten, met Chi, a female kitten from a loving family, for the first time, he kept asking for a “competition” – who is the first to run to the fountain, who is the quickest to catch a prey, etc. Chi, on the other hand, just wanted to play and have fun. She treats all the activities as a game, that even if she “loses”, she does not care because the pleasure is all the same.
Of course, we cannot all live our life carefree like Chi. But if we stop thinking of life as a competition, maybe we would open our eyes more to savor and appreciate all the ups and downs, laughter and tears, challenges and setbacks, bright and dark colors, that altogether define our irreplaceable adventures of life.