I remember when I was younger my family used to live in Brooklyn, New York. We were surrounded by a great Chinese community. My dad worked as a chef in a Chinese restaurant, and my mom sewed clothes at a factory part-time. I remember growing up very simply. We ate what my parents put on the table. We wore the clothes my mom made or bought for us. We played with the landlady’s kids and our neighbors. I remember my dad buying my brother and me a donut in the mornings before school while he drank his black coffee, and my mom getting me a slice of New York pizza after school to share with my brother. It was such happy times!
I REMEMBER
However, I do also remember having iron bars on our windows, even though we lived on the third floor of the apartment complex. I remember the landlady who lived on the second floor under us had five locks on her door and STILL got broken into often. I remember having only one window air conditioning unit in the living room. I also remember my extra protective mom NOT allowing me to go play outdoors often. Still, my memories of this time were pretty good!
BUT THEN WE MOVED
WE WERE ALIENS
I remember it was uncomfortable at first. Kids would stare at us a lot because we looked different. They didn’t expect me to know English, but honestly I spoke better English than Chinese. I grew up in America! I was made fun of often for how I looked. Kids can be mean. I get it. It didn’t help that I was put into ESL classes at the school and got tested on my English proficiency EVERY year until 12th grade. It definitely made me feel like an outcast, like I didn’t belong. All this just because my parents were Chinese. My school counselors explained to me that ALL students who were multilingual at home got the same treatment. This was apparently to ensure that we could keep up with our classes.
NOW LET ME TELL YOU
I still remember those annual ESL proficiency exams I was required to take. They consisted of speaking, reading, writing, and a listening part. Specifically, I remember the test would have pictures of a sequence of events. First, I would be asked to describe or make a story about what I saw using complete sentences. The picture would be something very simple, like a cat sitting on the sofa in front of a TV. Needless to say, it didn’t take me long to finish the test and I passed each time. All this, for a student who took AP English classes each year. LOL.
ANOTHER MOVE
After seven years, my parents found a different opportunity to open their restaurant in a city an hour away from Perryton, Texas into Guymon, Oklahoma. Still in the panhandle, but the panhandle of a different state. The population was a little larger. I remember loving to travel to Guymon, because my aunt and uncle also lived there. So every Sunday that my parents took off early, we would make the one-hour drive to see them. My brother and I loved those road trips. It mainly also meant we could go shopping at Walmart! LOL. It was a big deal… back in the day.
HIGH SCHOOL
Freshman year was difficult for me in many ways. I was entering a completely new territory, school-wise, and I knew no one. Freshman didn’t know me and they were also going into fresh territory, and the upper classman definitely didn’t know me because, well, I was a freshman. It was at that point that I just encouraged myself to have a better attitude and just get out of my comfort zone. Enroll in the extra curricular classes that I might not have tried before. No one knows me right? I enrolled in Speech and Debate, tried out for Show Choir, put myself in Student Counsel, did French Club, and at one point, I was even involved in Chess Club. I was in so many things. The people pleaser in me was working over time, but looking back… I probably didn’t really need to do any of that. I believe I would still have met the friends I am close with today.
How was your high school experience? Did you move around a lot too?
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