Building Bridges

My semester in Cuba brought me face to face with a culture and political/economic system I knew nothing about; and, through interactions with the close friends I made there, I was brought to recognize the deep-rooted sameness in all of us regardless of background.
One of the most impacting courses I took was "Political Economy of Socialism" in which on the first day of class my professor asked the students to identify the inherent contradictions within capitalism. While I was at a loss for words, the class seemed armed and loaded with a plethora of preset answers; the next day when she asked about the inherent contradictions within socialism, however, I was well-prepared with the propaganda my educational system had indoctrinated me with. Having these discussions with my Cuban classmates led me to understand at a deeper level how greatly our backgrounds affect our understanding of the world and how much the lines we are fed as children stick to our beliefs as adults.