The In Between

Having gone through high school as one of very few Asians, you come to see yourself to represent and define what Asian Americans are like. However, this very much changed when I arrived at college. You see, even though Asians make up a good chunk of the of the student population here, it is such a drastic change to go from seeing a small handful of Asians in high school to seeing Asians everyday, everywhere. One might think that perhaps that is what I would be looking for as it would be so easy to connect with everyone here since we theoretically have similar cultural backgrounds. That is true, to an extent. My high school experience has made it so here, I almost feel at times like I don’t fit into the Asian community at all. Back home, American culture had a much greater influence on me. Back home, I defined Asian. Forward now, there is an entire community that defines Asian. Compared to those who grew up in places with prominent Asian communities, such as NYC, there is a much different experience that they have in having a greater support group that better understood them culturally. I almost feel as if I don’t really know how I as an Asian American should be like because in the end people will seek to fit into the groups of people around them. While it is true that this is the next chapter of my life where everyone around me is also navigating their place on campus and that we’ll all come out of college changed people, it’s just a brutal reality of finally getting the Asian community that I sought growing up, but it not being completely how I imagined it. As Wong Fu Productions put it, I’m in, “The In Between,” where beyond your typical Asian American issues with culture clashes, I now have to deal with a culture clash with my Asian American peers. Having said all of this, the key thing to keep in mind while going through something like this is to just continue to be yourself and don’t make drastic changes to what makes you, you just to fit in. This may be a struggle, but the important thing is to be proud of who you are, who you’ve become, and who you’ll become.