Homestay Thoughts

I have been learning a lot about myself in the first few days of this trip, and about habits I have had on and off for most of my life that I have only become really aware of now. My host family is incredibly great, but on the first night here I offended my host father Cesar, by putting my own views out there too much, and feeling that I should correct some of his. For most of my life I have been surrounded by many like-minded people - in the town I grew up in, and for the past few years at the school I’ve gone to. But now I see that I have also been surrounded by people who share my views because many times when someone expressed a view I thought was wrong or offensive, I felt that I should correct them. And through that I alienated friends who had a different view on one particular thing. I wonder now why I have ever felt that I need everyone to share the same high minded, inoffensive upturned-nosed, bland views that I hold? What do I need to “correct” someone else’s views or statements for? Even if I feel someone is really wrong and they should think differently, telling them so will rarely change thinking, it will just make them feel resentful towards me, and towards the ideas I tried to force them to accept. To anyone I have ever done this to in my life, please let me know, if you would. I'm learning should let differences in opinion and statements that make me uncomfortable pass, because they're not important. And I’m recognizing the great amount of truth in the old rules of being a good guest. My host mother Lupe is the most gracious host you could ever find, and Cesar has done his best to be gracious in spite of the fact that I have not. I’m here to be a guest, to listen and to learn, and to talk about myself and my views when people ask. I'm not here to try to change anything. If I do change anything it will be by just being myself, being interested in what I'm interested in, and being respectful.
-Dan