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Each and every one of us is unique. Each and every one of us has something different to offer to the world. Difference itself is not evil. More often than not, it's the oppression of difference that is evil. Even though each and every one of us is unique, we are still alike in more ways than any of us will admit. We all share commonalities with one another. Obviously, some more than others, but we are all more alike than we are different.

There was talk at the university Wednesday night of going to the Blue Moose over in East Grand Forks. Usually, we'll take trips over there after 9:00 PM throughout the week, but those are normally four to six people. Wednesday, we must have had twenty-five people joining us. I cannot tell you how awesome it was to have that many people there at one time.

As we crowded around the table, I ended up sitting across the table from a woman who was also a student here. I can't tell you what her name is because her name can't be typed; her name is a symbol that she makes with her hand. However, we call her Christina when the situation warrants it. The reason for this is simple: Christina doesn't speak English. For that matter, she doesn't speak; she signs, for Christina is deaf.

I don't know what it was about her, but there was just something that wanted me to keep her at arm's distance. No, it wasn't that she was deaf. It was probably the nose ring that she has. There's something about nose rings that… scare me. It's too bad because it was such a minor issue… such a minor difference among a sea of commonality.

Like I said, I was sitting across the table from Christina. She asked me about the significance of my shirt (through an interpreter, of course). I responded back that it was from my university, and I also explained my intense displeasure for it. I began to explain the reason why I dislike my school and just Christian colleges in general. When I had to tell the interpreter that she needed to speak up because I was deaf in one ear, Christina thought that that was awesome. I have to admit that I would have never expected someone to tell me that my being deaf is awesome, but somehow, I had to just believe, if even only for that evening, that it was awesome. After all, it was something that we both had in common.

I could go on about all of the other similarities that we had in common, but it is very early in the morning, and I don't want to. Needless to say, we were both very different people. She is deaf, and I can hear. Hearing is such a big part of my life. Music is one of my greatest passions, but, while most deaf people can at least grasp the concept of music, most of them don't care about it. I would say that that's a huge difference between us. However, we cannot concentrate on the differences; we must focus on the similarities. Christina and I had so much in common from writing provocative features in our respective campus newspapers (which I hope to continue) to shaving our heads during our sophomore year.

I found myself wishing that I could keep talking to this woman after the various weeks that I had spent politely avoiding her. It's a shame that we can keep people at arms length just over small differences: how a person speaks, where a person's from, whether or not they have a piece of metal in their nose. It's a shame because if it's only minor things that separate the entire human race, then we might as well just give up if we can't ignore those. If we as humanity were just willing to connect with each other on our commonalities, then there is still hope. The beauty of it all is that with the information age, we can do all of this with a laptop from the comfort of our own bed. Speaking of which…