Mormon Picnic
Everyone is familiar with the feeling of exclusion. At least once or twice, every person encountered an issue, which led to this unpleasant and very uncomfortable feeling. Being alienated, being rejected and misunderstood – all these reflect and show what it may mean to be excluded. Unfortunately, in our society, exclusion is not uncommon, and social stereotypes lead to the exclusion of the whole racial and ethnic groups. Gender, sexual orientation, cultural beliefs, and religion can readily become the sources and the reasons of exclusion. Nevertheless, how negative and unpleasant exclusion experiences can be, they are useful in a sense that they show us the correct pathway. They help us interpret our identity and find our place. They show our mistakes and mistakes of others. In all these experiences, exclusion is always a matter of some distorted expectations; regardless of whether these expectations are produced by those who are excluded or by those who exclude, expectations always result in the creation of distorted social pictures which leave no room for inclusion, communication, and pleasant experiences.
One day, my friend Mike, a Mormon, asked me to come to a picnic with him. Because he is a good friend of mine, without thinking too hard, I went with him to a picnic. I was very excited about the event. Even though Mike said it was a Mormon picnic, I didn’t expect this trip to be awkward as it turned out to be. On a sunny Sunday morning, I started preparing myself for a picnic by going through my closet to find good looking and matching clothes that would make me get all the attention so that it would be easier for me to become close with new people. Then after couple hours, my friend Mike came to my house to pick me up and we headed off to the picnic place. We arrived after we talked for an hour about our friends and baseball. When we arrived, I was surprised because I didn’t expect his and other people’s parents to be there too. After calming myself down, Mike and I walked through a crowd of people and finally approached a group of kids playing ultimate Frisbee. Mike introduced me to his friends one by one. After my short self introduction and greetings from others, we started to play ultimate Frisbee. In my 17 years of my life, it was my third time playing it; I really sucked. I felt more and more left out as I missed the Frisbees that were thrown in to me. I didn’t obtain the right skills yet that were needed to play the game well. Soon, the lunch was prepared so we went to eat. After I looked at the long wooden table filled with foods, I started to panic. The sort of foods that were on the table was such as sandwich and salads that I could not eat because I do not eat any vegetables and most of fruits. The table was filled with new faces except for my friends from school
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