Turkeys. Check.

Quality play time. Check.

Wide open spaces. Check.

Open minds. Well…

Jordan Dial had just about everything a kid could want while growing up on his family farm, but he found that he might have been one of the few open-minded people from Greensburg.

The sophomore said keeping a tight bond with his family helped him deal with intolerance and find his own way.

Even in Dial’s childhood, it was clear that he was not the average kid.

“I loved to read and write,” he said. “If I was good, I got a book instead of a toy.”

Dial’s parents divorced when his was 2, so he spent most of his childhood very close to his sister and his mother.

Dial said he started taking piano lessons when he was 7, which influenced his lifelong love of music.

Dial’s grandmother, Helen Franklin, said he was a talented pianist at a young age.

She said besides being a talented, smart child, Dial also had a considerate, kind nature early on.

Dial said his grandmother and his mother both inspired him to shoot for his dreams with a positive outlook.

“No matter what I believed I wanted to do, they said if I had a passion for it I should pursue it,” he said.

His mother and stepfather both supported him when he became a drum major in his high school marching band.

With his band involvement, he still maintained a 4.0 grade point average throughout high school.

Franklin said Dial always stayed focused and ambitious.

“I always encouraged him to be himself,” she said. “Even though the people around the small town are small-minded, you have to be open-minded.”

Dial would need that advice once he took a step outside Greensburg the summer before his senior year.

He was accepted into the Governor Scholars’ Program. There he studied philosophy and comparative religion at the summer enhancement program at Northern Kentucky University.

“I got to meet so many diverse people,” Dial said.

Dial said in his community, which is 98 percent white, people would not have appreciated the diverse backgrounds and beliefs he encountered at GSP.

“Every type of scenario people had a problem with,” he said. “They didn’t have any respect or acceptance for anyone but themselves.”

When he came to Western in the fall of 2003, he said he finally felt at home.

He met new friends with similar interests and beliefs.

He started at Western on a full music scholarship. Though he loved music, he found that he would rather be a communications major.

When Bowling Green senior Destiny Smith met Dial, she knew she met her match.

“He and I are both in music, but it’s not our major,” she said. “We’re both communications majors.”

Smith said she and Dial can talk for hours because he is such a good listener.

Even though she has been his mentor with networking and with becoming a SpiritMaster, Dial has also been able to teach her an important lesson.

“He doesn’t feel like he has to impress anyone,” Smith said. “If people like him, they like him. If they don’t, they don’t.”

Reach Stephanie Toone at features@wkuherald.com.