SIT Application Essay

This is one of the many application essays I had to write in order to apply to the S.I.T Experiment in International Living. I know this essay is not perfect, I sent a more polished one to the committee. But this is a sample of some of the work I had to do to get into this program, so travel  to  South Africa this summer.

Religion, or lack there of, is Freedom
by: Selena Wetherby

Because of where I live Freedom has always been something I had as resource and has never been denied to me.  It’s not even the fact that I live in America is what makes me free but of who I am that makes me free.

Many people all over the world cannot worship the way that they would like.  Worship and religion is a beautiful thing that people twist and bend to make it rear an ugly head, which is why I find religious discrimination appalling. I’m not a super religious person, but I believe that there is a higher power, most of my personal beliefs come from Catholicism. That means even outside America, where there is freedom of region, my faith is widely accepted. This is not the case for many. France has been working on a movement to make public places secular, this an institutional. In the media that is mainly focused on store employees and school girls not wearing head dresses. This law bars all public displays of conspicuous religions symbols, including crosses, stars of David and any form of Islamic head dress.

Europe’s freedom of religion laws are very different from then the U.S, where this kind of discrimination would be unconstitutional. Religion is always something that I have taken for granted and I as I get older the more it becomes a freedom to me, because it’s the more I hear about people that are discouraged for their beliefs.  This is freedom because it was something I was always told I could do, and I started to see it.

I think freedom is important and different to every individual.  But to me Freedom is to have a voice, a voice to be heard, whether is be about my religious beliefs or my political be something I can talk about with friends of family.