Too many white people.

I walked up the long covered walkway leading into Culpeper County Jr. High School. My parents got the idea that their kids should experience living in the United States. Not sure where they got that idea, but, good intentions in hand, they packed me and my three brothers up, ages 7-16, and took us away from our third world comfort zone. We had always lived in countries that I can only describe as rich. Rich in colors and smells and vibrant people. India, Greece, Pakistan, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Liberia. Forget about nonsensical ideas like "personal space". They don't exist in the real world. They plucked us from a sensory smorgasboard and they deposited us in an american apple pie petri dish; Culpeper, Virginia.
There were some nice things about Culpeper. The Blue Ridge Mountains painted the skyline and the morning smelled like fresh world.
Walking in to my new American school that first day, I was nervous. I had moved every couple of years growing up so I was used to it. But this was different. My previous school experiences had for the most part been small schools with a lot of diversity. This school was huge.
When I walked through the front doors of the school, my first impression was that everybody was white. Very white. All white. The school actually had quite a large black population, but my virgin impression was, it looked white to me. It was disarming. Then it dawned on me that I was one of them. I was...white. I know that sounds strange, but being in the majority is an odd sensation if you are not used to it. I felt anonymous. Invisible. My athletic and academic skills in this larger setting did not stand out quite so much.
My daughter now, age 12, describes that very same feeling. She has just moved out of a small Catholic school where she has been since kindergarten. We moved and now she is in a huge Middles School, just a year younger than I was when I moved. Crying in her bed the other night, she told me that in her new school she felt small, anonymous. I am terrified for her. She has all the same tools in her toolbox that I did. Lets hope she fares better.