The American project has resulted in a beautiful melting pot of people from countless different walks of life, and never has this country’s rich cultural tapestry been more brightly on display than it is right now: These girls from Ohio are talking to these boys from Indiana at a hotel swimming pool in Michigan.
Wow! It brings tears to our eyes to see two groups of people reaching out across the chasm of their differences to find common ground!
Just ten minutes ago, a group of five girls from Beavercreek, Ohio sidled up to a trio of boys from Carmel, Indiana in the shallow end of the pool at the Grand Rapids, Michigan Holiday Inn, where both groups are staying during their respective softball and baseball tournaments, and the cultural exchange that has taken place since is nothing short of awe-inspiring. Though the girls first assumed that they wouldn’t want to associate with the “Indiana guys,” who were laughing at a meme related to an Indiana-specific standardized test called ILEARN that the girls had never heard of, it turned out that the groups were able to connect by sharing stories of their far-flung homes. The girls regaled the boys with a tale of Post-It noting teachers’ cars during Senior Prank Week, leading the boys to shock the girls with a story of the time they Post-It noted their principal’s office during a ceremony referred to in Carmel as Senior Wild Week. They continued from there to bring their two disparate milieus together, with the boys showing the girls pictures on their phones of the huge dead deer they saw on the side of I-69 during their journey to Michigan, and the girls showing the boys photos from the Starbucks on I-75 where the barista humorously misspelled the name on their coach on her cup. Soon the Indianans and Ohians were splashing, diving, and marveling together at the exotic Michigan locale they’d found themselves in, which had a regional restaurant chain called Arnie’s that none of them had heard of but hoped to sample.
Despite the girls’ and boys’ different backgrounds, their conversation also brought up some shocking coincidences: As it turned out, one of the girls from Ohio was named Taylor, which two of the boys from Indiana were also named. Of course, they never would have discovered these shared threads of cultural cloth had they not had the courage to put aside their tribal loyalties, paddle over to one another in their PacSun swimsuits, and strike up a conversation with the “other,” creating a vibrant environment where borders dissolved and a shared sense of unity prevailed. And though the girls were soon off to warm up for the Davidson Softball Classic while the boys left to get ready for the Silver Series 16U Prospect Showcase, it’s not likely that they’ll soon forget the profound cross-cultural connection they forged in the chlorinated waters of the Holiday Inn.
Beautiful!
In a world that often feels divided, this heartwarming tale serves as a beacon of hope and a reminder that, in this country, extraordinary connections can happen anywhere, at any time, and between anyone. God bless the USA!
