Assignment 19- Andrew Rogers

Whenever someone asks me what the most influential piece of advice I've ever recieved my thoughts first go so a small, relatively unimportant portion of advice. "Don't put your hand in your pockets." Yep. That's it. Don't put your hands in your pockets. To most of you that seems increadibly stupid and a useless piece of advice, but it matters where the advice came from. One of my Dad's best friends for many years, Brandon Rader (a name that means nothing to you) is who it came from. He travels multiple times every year around the world doing mission work in foreign countries. I don't talk to him alot and this conversation we had is the only one I'd had with him in the span of about 7 months. He told me to never put my hands in my pockets because around the world that usually signifies untrustworthiness. I had never thought about it before, that something so simple and innocent for us in America, had implications that I had no idea about. It allowed me to step back and consider how every culture interacts and the careful consideration we must all take in dealing with people. This small piece of advice changed how I percieved the world, and I am thankful that I can now understand other people's culture better than I did before.