AHMAD | Lessons From Queer Eye

When I arrived at Cornell my freshman year, I was a little bit skeptical about what my experience as a timid, scarf-wearing girl from a big, diverse city might be. Sure, Cornell was located in New York, a highly liberal state, but let’s be honest: Ithaca is in the middle of nowhere. And if I had learned anything from living in Texas, it was that the “middle-of-nowhere” towns were always the most…problematic. Not to mention, I had an idea of Cornell students as being a bunch of rich kid hotshots with copious amounts of privilege and none of the self-awareness to go with it. I recognize now that Cornell is a very much a tolerant campus and I often feel a bit embarrassed by my initial stereotyping.