GROUPED

by Patrice Paloso

The world today has become a vast compass of headquarters and sectors separated from each
other by their differences. It is at the same time fascinating to know that the world has 7 billion unique
individuals, and despite this fact, no one has ever become a complete redundancy of the other. But
despite individuality, humans have a way of relating with others. Often times they end up with a group
very much similar as their own. Sometimes they end up with a group of the same interest, faith, or race.
There have become tons of groups in this dynamic world, and as it changes from time to time, more
groups are formed and noticed.
We are grouped by culture. Notice a girl raised in a small town and a woman raised in a huge city.
The province girl probably knows how things work in a farm, and how it is morning when the roosters
begin to crow. A girl who spent forever in the city may have no idea about those things. Fairly, a
province girl may have no idea how heavy traffics are a headache, or how busy the streets still are at
night. Culture is what differs people based on how they live their normal lives. Though in some cases
culture can be mixed up, there will always be a visible boundary between one culture and the other.
We are grouped by race. Youre black, white, beige, chola descent. Youre Lebanese, youre
orient. As quoted in Lady Gagas famous hit Born This Way, it states the many races the world has.
Though this can be called a uniqueness of each nation, it is unfortunately an outlet to racism. One
example of how racism bring decadence is how white people are considered more attractive than black.
In the 19th century, black Americans were marginalized from society, who treated them as slaves.
Though this issue has long been resolved, it still cannot be presumed that racism is already done and
gone. In fact at present, other forms of racism, like regarding Filipino women as maids or Muslims as
terrorists, are still evident in the society.
We are grouped by personalities and interest. In the first day of freshmen year, a block would
stay together awkwardly getting to know each other. But in the middle of the academic year, the block
may have already dispersed in different groups. The cause of this dispersion may be the different
personalities and interests each one has. It is most likely that the intellectually-buzzed compose their
own group called nerds; the financially powerful create their hashtag entitled richkids; and the socially
active form an alliance with plans to run for a position in the student council next school year. This is
why organizations are formed college-wide and university-wide: to invest and relate in a brand of their
own.
There are still countless of groups according to various factors and basis. But one issue is
dominant among all dismal controversies - the presence of discrimination. It is inevitable though,
because humans tend to value their pride. One may think that they are better than the other since they
are richer, smarter, more attractive, or any comparative adjectives they could use against fellow human
beings. But they often forget that all humans end up in same underground that is their grave. In this
light, humans arguing and debating their pride are absurd and illogical. There is no point of fighting for
the summit of the pyramid, because without the inner part of the pyramid, it just collapses into a flat
square. And in real life at the end of the day, there really is no inner part; there is no pyramid.
The social system in this world is a vast and intricate web caused by human variability. But
despite humans differences, they relate with each other and end up to where they truly belong. And
this is one magic the world has - that despite of each others uniqueness, somehow in a special way,
they are all connected by compatibility. Humans are weird in their own ways and eventually they will
find a group of the same weirdness they genuinely call family.