Chinese Immigration Narrative

“Adoption” is the first word in my family dictionary, a noun that defines my life and how I live. My parents adopted me when I was 13 months and taught me how my heritage defines my identity. Through heritage camps and adoption conferences, I came to accept my Chinese background as the dual part that defines my life in America. Outwardly I represented a model Chinese-American student, yet I loathed the stereotypical mold. I felt short-changed being in such an amazing place for opportunity living in America, yet I felt as if I was ripped from the fabric of my Chinese birthplace. I felt that my adoption was an anchor of my life. While struggling with this connection, I came to appreciate all that America had to offer. I grew up like any other

Unfortunately, the pleasure of playing for others turned into technicalities with my focus solely on practice and dedication. With this intense focus, I lost sight of what I loved to do. During my freshman year, I suddenly decided to learn the flute to join and support the marching band in my brother’s senior year. Although I nearly passed out the first time I tried to play, it was phenomenal getting to perform with the seniors in their last year. As I picked up the flute, after quitting orchestra, a smile would cross my face as I discovered the enthusiasm for what I loved to do. I demonstrated how much I enjoyed a song while managing to forget my minor concerns. I became content with my performances, not bothered by mistakes. It was my freshman year with my older brother that brought me back to my love of music. Each performance was not just showing what I could do, but a chance to enrich and live my life. The true joy was not only in sharing my music, but devoting myself to something I

Waking up at 6:30 in the morning is too much for many high school students, yet I failed to sigh and sulk through the morning. Every day for my first year of high school I got to go to biology, a class I attended with eager anticipation of the biological systems I would be learning about that day. Biology created a beautiful relationship relating the world of living things to the rest of science. The genius was that anybody was capable of discovering information about the world around them. When learning about the simplest concepts such as water, my teacher enlightened the class celebrating how “Water is an enigma!”. I knew I liked science and I didn’t want to fail at it, so I bought books and studied. It was a challenging class, yet my dedication paid off to only further my persistence and drive to