I grew up in a small town near the border of Arizona. My entire childhood was there; my farthest collection of my younger self was a 5 year-old boy nervously entering his elementary school on his first day of school. When I first moved back to New York, it did not feel like home. I was not used to change. Moving across the country was a major blow to my steady life but, after living here for a few years, I came to embrace the change and love New York City. Others love New York City for the variety of unique monuments or the multitude of different foods, but I love the people–the diversity New York City has to offer. Back in Arizona, I was one of the only few Asian-Americans in my school and, perhaps, the only Chinese-American in …show more content…
In high school, I was exposed to a multitude of people and cultures–and I genuinely love it. Each and every one of them is proud of their culture and are interested in learning about other cultures. We learn from one another to broaden our perspectives. Back in middle school, when someone asked me, “Where are you from?” I would dodge the question. I was ashamed of my background, of being Chinese. The experience from living in Arizona caused me to become ashamed of my ethnicity. It was the diversity that I experienced that caused me to embrace my culture. Being exposed to more Asians made me feel that being Chinese is not as bad as I would have thought. Now, I can proudly say that I’m Chinese. Appreciating one of the most diverse cities in the world was just the first step. I came to appreciate those around me: my friends, my family members, and even random people I see on the news. I take what I learn from them and incorporate it into my own, constantly-changing identity. Even though I do fall under the traditional Asian stereotypes–high GPA, high test scores, lots of extracurriculars, etc–I’m much more than those stereotypical Asian-defining elements. I’m a writer. I love making puns. I’m a walking, sassy, sarcastic machine (not