"Be who you are, but be the best at it". The words echoed through the air as my parents' voices lay the blueprints of my life before me. Accomplishment has always been a goal I've strived for since the moment I set foot in the seeds of my educational journey. Little did I know, however, that along the way, I'd accumulate a personal fan club of opposition. Since then, my motivational drive to succeed in life was based on the desire to be better than the standards everyone else believed I couldn't exceed. .
As an Asian American entering a predominantly Catholic Italian American School, I felt as if I needed a part of me to shine. However, the determination my parents instilled in me to be the person I was somehow faded in the midst of social rejection. Here I was, a pre-adolescent, trying to escape the inconspicuous conflict of being different than everyone else. I hid behind a mask of books and calculators, in fear that my straight black hair and Oriental eyes signified the nothingness I only amounted to. Eager for acceptance, I sacrificed the one thing my parents told me to hold most important: my culture. I let myself down, feeling ashamed when racist gestures should've been the reason I defended my ethnicity instead of pretending I was only a more golden shade of white. The hardest part was not necessarily hiding who I was, but most importantly, never defending it. Each intolerant hit taking in secretly only knocked out the roots I was born with, and left me faceless with an unknown name. .
Diversity, however, struck me as a blessing when I reached the second stage of my educational destination: high school. A myriad of cultures, language, and color gave me a sense of belonging I couldn't pinpoint in my past. The multi-faceted friendships I established helped reinforced my parents' message, "Be who you are"; the importance of staying true to yourself. Motivated by scarred experiences, I learned to shine in everything I did because I knew all too well the painful mistake of regret, of allowing individuals to place limits on me when I knew deep inside that the possibilities were endless.
