Reflective Paper: Diversity, What Does It Mean To You?
Name
HRM582 - Managing Global Diversity
Professor J. Huddleston
July 13, 2014

Reflective Paper: Diversity, What Does It Mean To You?
Growing up in Louisiana, Georgia, and California, I was afforded the opportunity to play and work with different groups. It was me and the black kids, or me and the white kids, or me and the (insert race) kids. Rarely was it a mixture. There were always cliques. No one seemed to notice, or no one cared, because that’s how it had always been. I noticed. I didn’t know what to do about it or even if I could anything. What I did know, even a young age was race, color, sex, religion, height, weight, eye color, or anything that made someone different than me, intrigued me. I was the social butterfly. This is just who I was and still am today. I knew what diverse, and by extension, diversity meant, but I never applied it in a social context. When I joined the military, I quickly noticed in basic training, through all the yelling, and hurrying to get to the next location to sit and wait until we were told to hurry someplace else, we were all different yet we were working as a team to achieve a common goal....graduate basic training and begin our military careers. We hailed from different parts of the country, even different parts of the world. North, south, east, west, mid-west, “country”, southern, Asia, and Middle East. In spite of our inherent differences, we came together as a team. After training, I went to my first assignment....middle-of-nowhere-New Jersey. Here I was met with more of the same, service members of different races, cultures, colors, varied religious beliefs, different upbringings, and social status. Again, by focusing on the mission, the task at hand, we were able to continually work as a unit and find success. Over the next 22