“I’m not American, I’m Chinese American,” proclaims 16-year old Kelsey Wong.
Wong, a student at Irvington High School in Fremont, CA, didn’t always feel this way. There was a time when she wondered why she had to be different. Why couldn’t her mom pack her a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch instead of a thermos full of dumplings. Why couldn’t she go to her classmate’s Saturday afternoon birthday party instead of Chinese school. She was different and it made her feel out of place.
It’s a feeling common in many kids of all nationalities who wonder why they couldn’t be like everyone else. So how did she turn her Asian-ness into a sense of pride rather than a source of embarrassment?
“I think learning to appreciate my ethnicity was a process — a process I wasn’t even aware of, ” wrote Wong for the Oakland Tribune.
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Wong shares that process with readers in the Oakland Tribune.
Read it and tell us how it compares to your journey or the journey of your children.
Share your stories below. AsAmNews would love to hear about it.
