It took me about almost 12 years to finally realize that the stork does not deliver children to their parents. Growing up in a family as diverse as mine made the idea of the stork so... believable. In retrospect, I see the absurdity of it all, but it is something that helped form my identity when I was a young child.
With cousins adopted from Russia and Guatemala, it seemed like a normal thing not to look like my parents. But as I got older I began to think about what it really meant. These people that have raised me, are they really my parents? It hurt to think that maybe I did not have the bond with my mother and father that so many other children do.
When I was in the fourth grade, a girl with whom I was not very friendly came up to me and asked, "Don't you think it's weird that you don't look like your parents?" I vividly remember looking at her puzzled and taken aback by the suddenness of her question. But my belief in being dropped on a doorstep by a bird put my mind at ease when I thought about her question. Obviously the stork just picked me up randomly and dropped me at the first house it could find, right? It isn't my fault that I look different from my parents, is it? At nine years old, my mind was overtaken by questions like these and my desire to fit in soon became detrimental as I brought myself to believe what I perceived as the truth: If you do not look like your parents, you are not normal.
But I soon began to realize that I would be completely unable to understand the world around me if I was unable to understand myself. As I jumped headfirst into this journey that is high school, I decided that I was going to play sports, join clubs, and surround myself with people who would bring out the best in me.
As a result, the past three years have been the most reflective of my entire life. I have found that my determination in school has directly impacted my leadership and organizational skills, which helped me get my first job. My passion for those around me has transformed me into a caring and empathetic person, always searching for a way to help others. I have built upon these qualities through a community service trip to Hawaii that not only educated me on the beauty of different cultures, but brought me to make friends for life. I strongly believe that I have become the motivated person that I have always wanted to be, and my differences have rendered me an individual that cannot be paralleled. I have formed a bond with my mother that some girls can only dream of, and I have come to understand the love that my father has for me, as my love for him is just as strong.
But even still, I do not look like my parents. I do not look like my grandparents, or my aunts or uncles or cousins, but my friends, family, teachers, and coaches have helped me realize that that is okay. What people think of me can be completely different from what I think of myself, and my journey towards self-acceptance began in the fourth grade on that playground at recess.
And so, to the girl whom I never answered: No. I do not think it is weird that I don't look like my parents. In fact, I am proud to be the person that I am today. My perseverance, ambition, and pride in my identity have brought me to the now, and I strongly believe that I happened to be picked up by the luckiest stork going to the best place in the world.
