SELF-DESIGNED EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING PROPOSAL
Click on the Ronald McDonald House Charities image to view my self-designed experiential learning proposal.
THIS I BELIEVE
After reading many "This I Believe" statements as a part of a class assignment, I thought about what my "This I Believe" statement would say, and I've decided that it would have to be about faith.
When I was two and a half years old I moved to America from Germany as a Bosnian war refugee. In the mid nineties, a civil war broke out in Yugoslavia between the Bosnian Muslims, the Serbian Orthodoxes, and the Croatian Catholics. The war was a religious power struggle between the three forces primarily driven by the Serbians who wished to exterminate the Muslims.
As a child, I grew up learning about this war and I never understood any of it. I couldn't understand why or how people could kill other people simply based on what God they pray to. For me, it was especially complicated because my parents are different religions. My mom is Muslim and my dad is Orthodox, so I grew up without a religion that was truly my own, for we would go to church on occasion, and I have been to a mosque a few times as well. To me, it all seemed to be the same, which confused me even further.
My parents fought to stay together for because they were of different faiths, both families forbade them to get married, so they ended up eloping. They loved each other too much to let faith get in the way, and they raised me to never discriminate based on religion.
To this day, I don't have a religion that I can call my own. I went a Catholic high school, so I learned about that faith, but I really can't choose one that I abide by. To me, it doesn't matter where you pray, whether it is in a mosque, a church, or a temple, for I believe that the same God hears your prayers. No matter what name you call Him, I believe that the same big guy upstairs is listening. I just wish that more people could share that point of view.
When I was two and a half years old I moved to America from Germany as a Bosnian war refugee. In the mid nineties, a civil war broke out in Yugoslavia between the Bosnian Muslims, the Serbian Orthodoxes, and the Croatian Catholics. The war was a religious power struggle between the three forces primarily driven by the Serbians who wished to exterminate the Muslims.
As a child, I grew up learning about this war and I never understood any of it. I couldn't understand why or how people could kill other people simply based on what God they pray to. For me, it was especially complicated because my parents are different religions. My mom is Muslim and my dad is Orthodox, so I grew up without a religion that was truly my own, for we would go to church on occasion, and I have been to a mosque a few times as well. To me, it all seemed to be the same, which confused me even further.
My parents fought to stay together for because they were of different faiths, both families forbade them to get married, so they ended up eloping. They loved each other too much to let faith get in the way, and they raised me to never discriminate based on religion.
To this day, I don't have a religion that I can call my own. I went a Catholic high school, so I learned about that faith, but I really can't choose one that I abide by. To me, it doesn't matter where you pray, whether it is in a mosque, a church, or a temple, for I believe that the same God hears your prayers. No matter what name you call Him, I believe that the same big guy upstairs is listening. I just wish that more people could share that point of view.
FINAL PRESENTATION
Click on the image of me and my father, Rocky, to view my final presentation.