The Middle Seat

Have you ever sat in the middle seat on an airplane? The person on your right is sleeping and the person on your left is a talker. It’s an intriguing conversation but you’re trying to remain quiet as to not disturb the person on your right. You feel a little bit stuck because you want to talk to the person but you also don’t wanna disturb or wake up the other person sleeping. People-pleasing at its finest. How many times do you find yourself in the middle seat from religion to politics to racism? You don’t want to rock the boat but you feel convicted around the subjects.??

Racism to me feels a lot like that. We tiptoe around the hard conversations. We want to believe that it isn’t real and that humanity is better than this reality. I am a minority woman who grew up in a white home and I’m married to a very handsome bald, white man. I was an inner-city kid who grew up in poverty and one of the few Asian kids in my schools. My parents were very hard workers and were dealt some tough cards. They did the very best they could with what they had. Kids were mean, I was an outcast at times and felt misunderstood my whole childhood.?People would often ask are you Mexican, Latino, mixed OR never even realize I was a minority at all. Talk about an identity crisis. I didn’t get to meet my Filipino dad until I was 12. I went out to California met all 10 of his brothers and sisters, all of my cousins all of their friends, it was a relief. I wasn't as different as I thought I was. They looked like me and they were so inclusive even though they had know idea who this little girl was yet. It was as if I had been there the whole time. I saw me in someone else’s eyes. For the first time in my life, I felt at home but then I felt guilty because I had a home in Indiana with the family who loved me and was raising me. It was like an internal divide. I think so many of us struggle with being different, different personalities looking different but isn’t that the way that God made us all, uniquely different.?I’ve never been more proud to be a Filipino American Or as my husband likes to call me, Filbilly, my mom is from Kentucky. I absolutely love the diverse world that we live in, I believe that we all should have equal rights to do the things that we are called to do by our Savior and that we should all be included and feel like we matter.?

What I want you to know is that I see you. I see the beauty in your uniqueness and what you bring to this world regardless or race, size, shape, history. Take some time to see you’re peers from the eyes of your creator. It brings perspective, inclusivity and it brings love. The ultimate gift to humanity.?Be the bridge my friends that mends a divided world.