Rina on opening her mind

Cape Town has been treating me well, but it also has me thinking a lot about what the future holds for me.  The fact that I haven't decided what I want to do when I graduate, has been something I have been grappling with, but I've accepted it.  I know that I need to continue to build up experience so that when I do decide, I can have some background in the field, or at least a starting point.  If all of my plans fail, I plan to go to culinary school, move back to Cape Town, and take over Charly's Bakery.  I can bake and bake and feed the homeless or at least the hungry.  It might not be the most lucrative, but I know I'd be happy doing something I'm passionate about.  

I have always been one to seek out the best option, and tried to be the best, but why does everything have to be a competition?  Many of the South Africans and non-American people I've had the pleasure to converse with, have mentioned that everything in America is always about competition, everyone is very competitive.  And not just in school or sports, even the littlest things, like a courting between two people.  We're always playing games, and toying with emotions and feelings.  One thing I wish I could change about most people is to shift the emphasis from competition, to cooperation.  Competition is all about trying to be better than one another, when in reality, no one is really "better" than anyone else.  We may be better off, because of our privileges that we've been born with, or the experiences we've been privileged to encounter.. but we are all human and not one being is truly better than another.  

This is something I feel the need to keep in the front of my mind, as I come across people with viewpoints, ideals, values and morals that differ from my own.  This is important because it is easy to believe that our own views, ideas, values and morals are right, and the right way of doing things.  Rather than trying to persuade people to agree with us, it is better to present our own side and allow others to decide for themselves if they accept it or not.  I have always thought myself too keep an open mind, but Cape Town is opening my mind more and more each day...