jptashenchuk
Oct 14, 2012
Undergraduate / 'Describe a moment when your perspective changed' - Brown University Supplement [5]
My hometown is one of those close-knit, rural towns where people would comment about how big I've grown or that they liked my family's yearly Thanksgiving card whenever I went to church or the grocery store. One of those towns where neighbors are extensions of family, and they always look out for one another. In my homogenous community of two thousand villagers, there were only a handful of minorities.
As I grew older, it dawned on me that I was different. I was not like the others, I was not white. I had darker hair, eyes, and skin than my peers, courtesy of my parents, whoemigratedimmigrated to the US from the Philippines when they were students. In my middle school of about one hundred students per grade, I was the only "Asian kid". Because of these differences, I thought that I was somehow "special". I wore my ethnicity with pride, espousing "Filipino pride" by celebrating historical and contemporary Filipino national heroes like Jose Rizal and Manny Pacquiao.
It was not until later that I realized I knew nothing about being Filipino.
When I moved to CT, I enrolled in the local high school for my sophomore year. I was impressed by its statistics - there were over two thousand students and many of them are ethnic minorities. It was such a stark contrast to Rouses Point and I excitedly anticipated meeting people of all different races, especially "fellow Asians".
I soon met some "Asian kids" in the first few weeks of school. I was shocked by how different they were to me. Most of them spoke another language at home. I could speak only one language: English. They ate ethnic foods at home. I hardly ever ate Filipino food.
Was I truly one of them? Did race and ethnicity decide my identity? Or was my identity determined by experiences, living situations, and upbringing? From what I experienced, the latter proved to be true. Even though I was ethnically "Asian", I was more similar to those of my hometown.
I like this essay a lot, it is very descriptive and I liked how you used specific examples rather than general ones. The one thing I'm not too sure of is which perspective changed? Is it that you thought you were a true Filipino and realized that you weren't as Filipino? Or was it your perspective on the fact that you were a minority and then realized that there were more Filipinos like you.. try to make that more clear towards the end :) Otherwise, I like your essay a lot, best of luck!
My hometown is one of those close-knit, rural towns where people would comment about how big I've grown or that they liked my family's yearly Thanksgiving card whenever I went to church or the grocery store. One of those towns where neighbors are extensions of family, and they always look out for one another. In my homogenous community of two thousand villagers, there were only a handful of minorities.
As I grew older, it dawned on me that I was different. I was not like the others, I was not white. I had darker hair, eyes, and skin than my peers, courtesy of my parents, who
It was not until later that I realized I knew nothing about being Filipino.
When I moved to CT, I enrolled in the local high school for my sophomore year. I was impressed by its statistics - there were over two thousand students and many of them are ethnic minorities. It was such a stark contrast to Rouses Point and I excitedly anticipated meeting people of all different races, especially "fellow Asians".
I soon met some "Asian kids" in the first few weeks of school. I was shocked by how different they were to me. Most of them spoke another language at home. I could speak only one language: English. They ate ethnic foods at home. I hardly ever ate Filipino food.
Was I truly one of them? Did race and ethnicity decide my identity? Or was my identity determined by experiences, living situations, and upbringing? From what I experienced, the latter proved to be true. Even though I was ethnically "Asian", I was more similar to those of my hometown.
I like this essay a lot, it is very descriptive and I liked how you used specific examples rather than general ones. The one thing I'm not too sure of is which perspective changed? Is it that you thought you were a true Filipino and realized that you weren't as Filipino? Or was it your perspective on the fact that you were a minority and then realized that there were more Filipinos like you.. try to make that more clear towards the end :) Otherwise, I like your essay a lot, best of luck!