Two thoughts came to my mind while reading Homophobia. The first one being about the importance of childhood and the second being how essential to expand your worldview.

Growing up for Shamla, homosexuality was simple and cut and dry. It was just a spirit and there’s no choice involved and it’s ok to make jokes about. This backwards way of thinking was normal for Shamla and I’m sure a great number of kids just like him. When you’re a kid, the brain is a sponge soaking all information around them and not knowing any better about said info. It’s a tragic generational thing that his family had to pass what they know to an unknowing child learning about the world. While we do like to think homophobia has progressed, we sadly still deal with the fact that this kind of discrimination still gets passed down in some families even in 2018.

The thing that challenged Shamla’s worldview and his generations of thinking was heading off to college. While in school, it’s easy to lose a track that we are now in an environment made up of people from all worldviews, perspectives, and area. We lived our whole life with those similar to us in whatever hometown we come from, but college shows us what the world really is. Shamla saw things he couldn’t possibly see with how he was raised in the deep south. College challenges who we are and how think on multiple levels and we see that beauty through Shamla.