Personal Narrative: My Status As A Minority

I can’t believe how my Cultural Diversity class has enlightened me. I now have a more detailed explanation of how immigrants arrived, where they arrived and why. I never gave a second thought to all of it before much less where our society is heading. It seems like there is a contest to see who can conform to a more unified culture first or moreover who can destroy it first.

Growing up in a family where my mom was a doctor and my dad was a musician, I was exposed to a lots of things in my life. For example I was able to see Broadway plays and and go on family trips to Disney every year in the winter. A lot of people would say I was very fortunate to be one of the family where I knew both my parents and they did there best to give me a lot of life experiences. But me being an African-American male it seems like I not supposed to how do experiences, I was supposed to not know my father not to be able to go on these trips with my family.

I am a minority, and a minority hardly gets their voice heard. One reason why is that the majority talks too loud over them, and secondly, because of fear. Fear of discrimination. This was me through high school. My faith had always been something of true importance to me, including the morals and responsibilities that came along with it.

In the past I have struggled with my biracial identity. As a child I was confused about which community I belonged in because I am a mix of Navajo and Caucasian. As I got older, I began to question myself and who I was. I felt like I did not belong to either the Native or Caucasian community because in both groups I felt like someone else. I felt as if I had to live two lives that were completely separated.

We partied to the sounds of house music, a real unique ghetto style of dance music, blasting music by artists like Dj Montey, PinkHouse, and Dj Slugo. Our wild parties made people in the building mad, but we didn’t care. We were wild and young and we weren’t trying to hear them. Our parents were gone and we were under our own authority for the first time. We told the building manager that our parents had moved and they tried to set up meetings with them, but by that time they were already in Minnesota.

First, many locations have dockworkers who are of different ethnicities. I always liked going to the place where the dockworkers had some Latinos, because I have often heard them refer to me as " Pinche Negro : or " Pinchie Miyati ". Hope I spelled those right, LOL. The first one means the F-bomb with Negro on the end. The second literally means F-bomb and N-word together.

I didn’t know that I was Black until the fifth grade. I mean, I always knew that I was Black as in the Black slash African American box I poorly shaded in every year on the CST and free lunch applications; but, I didn’t know know that I was Black. It was during a passing period I had between Physical Education and Science to pee that I realized what my race was. Like hundreds of times before, I entered the dimply sunlit restroom connected to the cafeteria of my elementary school; but, this time, instead of exiting the restroom, after washing my hands, I decided to look at my reflection.

I feel that my particular experiences and passion will add strength and diversity to the USF medical class. Growing up from a lower socio-economic status has exposed me to a certain lifestyle in which one must be flexible and resilient in order to survive. In order to traverse the hardship, one must develop inner strength at a younger age. Those experiences has shaped my perspective on the outcome of hard work and opportunity. I am a firm believer of the saying, "What don 't kill you, makes you stronger".

Being a future first generation college student and a second generation Taiwanese immigrant, I find my ethnic identity to have played a crucial role in my life. Having grown up in a household where nobody spoke English, I believe it would be an understatement to say that my ethnic identity has defined me, for it is much more complex than what people perceive it to be. Rather, it has shaped me to become an individual who values education above all else. In Taiwan, education represents the pinnacle of success, and I strive to reach that pinnacle through an undergraduate education at Michigan. The Michigan Taiwanese Student Association will not only cater to my educational values, but serve to further my knowledge for a culture that remains relatively

walked out of the gondola at the top, and I could see the sun that is just about to rise behind the mountain further away. The sky was clear, and the cold temperature made my breath heavy. The snow crunched under my skis when I walked in the snow, and I felt that today was going to be a good day. I took two perfect runs on the slope before it was time for inspection of the course. I normally like when the course is changing from turn to turn, and the course today was just like that.

Elen Vaquero #21551 November 10, 2017 Narrative Merrell/ Wood, 4th period The outsiders >>>WHAT THEY DON’T KNOW ABOUT ME..... <<< ¨Hey uhm Ponyboy today we gotta rumble,are you okay,