“We Are the Same”

            In the personal essay, “We Are the Same,”written by Emily Renie (2015), Renie reflects on a time when she worked as a medical assistant in Zimbabwe, and she proposes that even though people may be separate because of their differences, they are still basically the same due to common experiences.  She develops this idea by first giving us some context for her story, she recounts a memory of a compliment she received from her employer, she tells us about her experiences with the village children.  Renie’s essay highlights the fact that physical differences and language are obvious characteristics that people tend to gravitate towards when making an assessment of someone, but when we look closer at what really connects us, we find we’re more the same than different.  Her audience is other students, or persons who travel abroad and come in contact with people of other cultures.

            I really enjoyed the flow and arrangement of the essay, the way the author began the story by giving us context to her experiences in Zimbabwe, how she felt about herself versus how other saw her was telling.  So many times people live their lives based upon what others think or say about them.  The essay is a story of self confidence from a person who is comfortable with who she is.  She sees the beauty in herself and does not let her image be defined by the opinions of others.

            The purpose of Renie’s essay enlightens us to the common human experiences that connect us all.  When encountering someone new, especially someone from a different culture we tend to initially go to the physical.  Renie states “ Its is sad how the first thing we notice about other people is often our differences.”  When the group of village girls point out that she is same as one of the other girls (146), the girls were thinking the same due to a similar physical characteristic.  When the author looked into the eyes of the young girl she knew it was deeper than that.  It took her back to a time when someone tried to make her feel shame because of how she looked. “We both felt the same insecurities and the way it picked away at our source of courage,” she was able to be empathic because she had been in her shoes.  Renie ends the essay by contemplating the hope that this young girl would not let her personhood be defined by what others felt about her, but that she could see she was beautiful because of how she felt about her self.