October 2, 2015 - 16:38
Napping, listlessly staring out the window, and making polite conversation is standard fare for long bus rides. With that expectation in mind, the bus ride was not the place I expected to find my best friend. I suppose it is inaccurate to classify this particular incident as a completely unexpected encounter, as it rather is more like, in the words of Mary Louise Pratt, we were placed in a preconceived “contact zone”. Our encounter was hardly random as we were both there for a summer program, taking the bus with the other fifty-something participants. The parameters of the contact zone had been set before we had even arrived, by the facilitators who selected the applications and created the program. It was a community of people all in the same place, for similar reasons. The program in itself was practically structured to be a contact zone, marketing itself as focused on service, culture, and leadership. It was targeted to high school students possessing these interests, and belonging to the religious sect I belong to, its goal was to connect a group of these teenagers from around the world. Despite this, we each came from diverse backgrounds, and were shaped by different life experiences. Some of us had grown up in 1st world countries, others in 3rd world countries, for some, English was not their first language. The group of us were an ideal breeding ground for a contact zone. It was the truest contact zone I have ever been in, in terms of Mary Louise Pratt’s description of a space in which “no one felt excluded and no one was safe” (39) defines my experience. However, even in an environment where everyone is open to listening to your ideas, and stories, it does not mean it is easy to share these things. To create a successful contact zone, we did activities that encouraged us to share a moment or story from our lives.
In one such situation, we drew roadmaps of our lives, noting the highest and lowest points, and then went around in a circle sharing them. To tell a situation so deeply personal to a group of people you hardly know is terrifying, especially when you do not believe anyone would understand or be able to connect with your experience. As more stories were revealed, the level of vulnerability increased. Ironically, feeling more vulnerable is what made everyone more comfortable to share with the group. Maybe this was because although many could not sympathize, just knowing that others had been through equally as stressful ordeals created a sense of mutual comfort. This comfort translated not necessarily to increased safety, but rather to a shared increase in vulnerability. A contact zone is more than just about creating a space where individuals are open and engaged. It also requires everyone to have first thought about or have some understanding of their own personal contact zone. Each person must be strong enough to vocalize their thoughts and ideas, even if they do not feel completely safe or comfortable.
Pratt discusses the need to create more widespread contact zones in replacement of “homogeneous communities” (Pratt 35). The issue is that in order to establish contact zones, each member must be aware and capable of accessing their personal contact zone. Without each participant’s active involvement, a contact zone will self-destruct, or rather cease to exist in the first place. Pratt focuses on the idea of contact zones with other people, however I think personal contact zones are the first step to creating contact zones with other people. Each person has their own internal contact zone in which they can question and try to understand different aspects of their identity. Factors that affect a personal contact zone include one’s background, culture, beliefs, and surrounding environment. The culmination of these ideas is what helps us form our values and identity. By identity, I am referring to the way in which we present ourselves to the world, and the lens through which we attempt to understand the world. The reason I believe personal contact zones exist is because identity is not stagnant. People’s identities continue to change throughout their lives because they are constantly struggling to piece together and extract meaning from different parts of their lives. The goal of personal contact zones is not to feel comfortable in our own identity, but more to confront and examine aspects of our own identities. This allows us to be vulnerable to ourselves first, and then transfer it into shared contact zones with other people.
When thinking back to my example of contact in which I met a person on a bus ride, it is easy to say that we were clearly pushed into a common contact zone that aided us in quickly connecting. While I cannot recall any of the conversation, I know we must have discussed a lot for our friendship to have progressed so rapidly. The combination of feeling included in the established contact zone, and having engaged in some sort of confrontation in our personal contact zones allowed us to be candid with each other. In this instance, sharing an established contact zone simplified the process, however, this is easily transferable to a situation with two people who did meet by chance. Pratt voiced the idea of a need to re-evaluate our teaching systems and create more contact zones in our educational practices, but I think we should also create them in a more simplified and less structured environment. Every time we meet a person or engage in a conversation we have to choose whether or not to turn that moment into a contact zone. If each person sitting next to a stranger on a bus stepped away from casual conversation and made a conscious decision to attempt to discover more, we might learn so much about each other. Contact zones are not supposed to be comfortable, but they can make us more comfortable with being uncertain and uncomfortable. Allowing ourselves to be vulnerable is part of what makes a contact zone function, and the first step to being vulnerable is confronting our own personal contact zones.