Going Beyond the Surface

Darla Hutchinson takes her dogs for a walk alongside a country road near her and her brother's residence. Darla is one of the many homeless residents who reside in "tent city." Photo by Clint Sloan

By Clint Sloan

My name is Clint Sloan and I am from Ada, OK. I chose to major in journalism because I love to write stories that expose injustices in today's society. I always look to the mindset of Jesus when he said we should care for the downtrodden. This leads me to dig deeper and find stories that impact people, and is a major reason I wanted to come to Puerto Rico; I wanted to learn about a different culture and to look with an objective lens to find out what life in Puerto Rico is really like. Below is an essay for a travel writing class I am currently taking while in Puerto Rico. This story led me to want to learn more about people that live far different than I:

The editor of the Ada Evening News approached me about doing a story covering an event to benefit an organization aimed at helping the homeless. I talked to the coordinator of the event and she informed me that there was a place where homeless people lived just outside of Ada, what she said was a tent city. I never heard of anything like that happening in my hometown. I went to the tent city and could not believe how they were living; they drank water from a stagnant brook and lived under a ripped tarp. The rest of the neighborhood thought of the homeless as a nuisance, but I had the chance to talk to the homeless and try to understand why they lived that way. And they had quite a story to tell, a story plagued with a history of mental sickness and chronic alcoholism.

This experience helped me learn about other people, and has instilled in me a desire to find a story that greatly impacts people's lives. I want to learn more about different people and different cultures in order to learn more about the world. I have been confined to Oklahoma all of my life. I have taken several trips, but have never been outside the contiguous United States. By going to Puerto Rico, I would be exposed to new cultures and customs I have never seen before. And by going with an objective mind, I would be able to put away any preconceived judgments and learn what life is really like in Puerto Rico.