Many immigrants have this idea that coming to America will open so many opportunities and doors. They believe the "land of the free" is opening up their arms to everyone's cultural diversity, and supports any unique and innovative ideas that can be contributed. And once they're settled, America tries to blend the different cultures brought by everyone, taking in different types of people and raising them in this melting pot of an environment.
We collectively learn early on in elementary school to respect one another and "treat others as you want to be treated". These messages are ingrained into our minds at the ripe age of five-years-old. However, as we grow older and develop more cognitive processing skills, we start to stray from these simplistic ideas. This eventually leads to the decaying of memories of these basic principles. We start to judge one another, hate others, and ridicule more.
Being a second generation millennial can be difficult at times. There is a constant battle between maintaining practices and traditions of your ethnicity and trying to assimilate into America's "ideal" lifestyle. Eventually, after one or two generations living in this country, it seems as if keeping some of your culture, which made you so unique before, starts to slowly dissipate.
You find yourself ridiculed for not being in touch with your culture. Yet people give you glares when you do something that resembles that same culture. Others chastise you when you don't speak the language your grandmother speaks. They're confused as to why you don't know the practices of your own people. Yet when you utter a phrase in your native language, people respond with, "What? Speak English, please".
How many times have my friends and I ran into an Asian person speaking, and they turn to me and ask, "What did she say?" Just because I'm Asian doesn't mean I know what they're saying. They could be speaking Korean, Japanese, or Chinese, or countless other languages, and to assume I know them all is ridiculous.
On the other hand, I feel judged by others who immigrated to this country and ask questions like, "You don't know what that is?" with a tone of condescending judgement. They're stunned by the notion that I don't know everything about our home country.
Growing up, this double standard of assimilating into America's culture while trying to learn and retain the ways of my ethnicity was extremely confusing. When I was in school, I felt as if I had to assimilate to this particular lifestyle. I felt as if I had to conform to this suburban, white culture. I played on sports teams on the weekends, instead of going to Chinese school on Sunday. I ate pizza and sandwiches, instead of noodles and dumplings.
Don't get me wrong, during these years I've made great friends and memories that will last me a lifetime and will never regret it. However, now that I'm entering into adulthood, I see that I'm judged for not knowing my culture, when all my life I was pressured to step into another. Yet time and time again, people still ask why I don't know much about my culture.
Not knowing everything about my culture, doesn't mean I don't embrace some things. I enjoy dim sum and celebrating Chinese New Year with my family. Even if I don't fully understand some of the traditions and ceremonies, I still enjoy taking part in them. I've become proud of what my family has done to provide a roof over my head and to give me the opportunity to attend college.
So why can't we just truly embrace these differences and be proud of how hard our grandparents and great grandparents did to get us to where we are today? We often forget the back-breaking work those before us put forth every day just to survive in this country. When they came to America, they envisioned a greater future for their children and their children's children. Let us not derail from this path by holding each other to petty standards and wrongful expectations. Remember what we learned in elementary school and respect one another for who they are.
