Diane Hursh

Bio: My name is Diane Hursh, and I am a Senior at Ball State University. I changed my major, so I will be here for a little longer than the usual four years. I am an English Secondary Education major, with a minor in Business and Speech Communication/Theatre. I plan on teaching English at the high school level.

Statement: I really think that a lot could be worked out in relationships of all kinds if people were honest and open with one another. I know that a lot of dishonesty about who we are is because of fear -- fear that people will see the real us and reject us. I'll admit it's a tough pill to swallow. No one wants people to not like them, no one wants to feel rejected. We are so afraid to show ourselves and be ourselves that so much communication gets stifled in the process. To tie this with race relations specifically, imagine if people were really honest with what they feel (and of course, when I say this, I mean being honest while still having respect for the other person). Imagine if instead of keeping things under wraps about race, people talked about it more. I've seen this happen in our class. I've seen us be able to talk about race openly with each other that I have never seen before between the different races. It makes me really excited that there's a chance we can really make things happen with this class and with our play.

That is my main goal with this project, to get people talking about an issue that causes a lot of hurt, a lot of pain, and to be open and honest about that hurt; to listen to others honestly talk about what they are thinking and feeling.