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Politics and Activism

Going Back To My Roots

A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots. - Marcus Garvey

Megan Sebastian
Jan 10, 2017
Calvin College
84
Going Back To My Roots
Service Line Warranties of America

I was adopted from China when I was a very young child. 16 months to be exact.

(For fun's sake, here's a picture of my Dad and I right when I came home from China)

Because of the very young adoption, I don't know my own roots. I know that I am Chinese but I don't know anything about my past. I don't know anything about my culture. Since I was raised by Dutch parents, I never reached out and tried tapping into my Chinese roots. I never really cared to.

Now that I am a part of an Ethnic dance group, I realized how much I am out of touch with my own background. Tonight we had our first meeting and our instructor was talking about doing the traditional Chinese dance outfits that we were going to wear and I shamefully had no idea what they looked like. Some of the other girls in the group knew exactly what they were. Being there made me realize that I wanted to learn more. Being there made me want to learn more.

I hunger to know more about the Chinese culture. The history. Learn about the different types of food they eat. The types of dances they do. (One, the ribbon dance, which I will be a part of.) I want to be able to someday be able to say "yes" when they ask me if I know any Chinese. I want to discover more about who I am and this huge part of my identity.

This road is going to be fun and exciting. I am excited to share my journey. Also, putting it out online is forcing me to stick to this. I cannot back down. This year is going to be the year that I learn more about where I come from.

I hope that I will be writing an article in the future about what I have learned.

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