These past ten weeks taking this freshman’s class has taught me to be open to new ideas, understand others more and to not judge someone before I get to know them. Reading the novel, There There,​ gave me the opportunity to learn more about the Native American culture. I was able to understand the differences and similarities in my culture and the Native American one. Also, the group project we did allowed me to learn how to work with other people and listen to their ideas. The idea we chose to focus on, having a support system, furthered my knowledge on the importance of being supportive and having support.

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Reading the novel furthered my background knowledge on the Native American culture. Growing up I had very little knowledge on Native Americans. I had a standard understanding of their culture but nothing deep. The novel taught me about the hardships Native Americans went through. Before taking this class, I did not have information on the Alcatraz movement. Reading the Opal’s chapters allowed me to gain some information on that movement. It changed my perception on the culture and the culture has prospered. I learned that Alcatraz soon allowed Native Americans to receive the same rights as everyone else. They were finally starting to fit in our world. Also, the Native American culture differs from mine because of the powwows events. It is a huge event that brings the Native American culture together and closer. The event includes food, dancing, costumes and art that represents the celebration of their culture. Our culture does not have anything like that to bring people together. We have holidays but no holliday represents our culture and celebrates our traditions. However, our cultures are similar in some ways. Both of our cultures go through everyday situations. Today, we both work for an income, have a family to support, go grocery shopping, drive a car, play board games and etc. Our lives are not excessively different from Native Americans. We play the same games, shop at the same stores, watch the same shows. The only thing that is different is our traditions but everyone has their own traditions. Even people within the same culture have different traditions. After reading this novel, I would like to know more about what happened to the characters in the novel. The novel ended it at a cliffhanger and did not talk about where the characters are today. I think I would be interested to see how they have adapted to our society today with all the new adaptations. All in all, the Native American culture is different yet similar to my culture.