Prompt: Describe how your family background has influenced the way you see the world.
My family moved into our first home in America on my birthday; it was a shabby apartment. I remember my parents and my sister singing me the birthday song in an apartment of nothing but a king-size mattress we found at the apartment dumpster earlier that afternoon. "Your birthday present is America," my mom had said as I blew out the seven candles.
From a world of one color to a world of many, I was mesmerized by the Barbie-like blond hair that I had only seen on TV. I felt different, distant, and distinguished in this myriad of different colors. To my surprise, on the first day of school, kids of different hair color, hair texture, and skin color approached me. I befriended a group of African American girls who taught me STEP dance, a traditional dance ritual of African Americans. My best friend was a blond Caucasian who taught me how to tie shoelaces in the traditional American "bunny ear" fashion. My Hispanic classmate introduced me to tamales that I've never seen before.
Of all my birthday presents, my most favorite and most thankful is, by far, my seventh birthday present. Although it wasn't anything tangible, it is one that has been an eye-opening adventure, one that will last a lifetime, and one that has allowed me to appreciate the many cultures and traditions from the blond Barbie hair to the tamales. At the end of the day, we're all the same people under the layers of hair and skin of dead cells: we all tie our shoe laces, we all eat, and we all have hair. We may tie the laces differently, prepare food differently, and groom our hair differently; but isn't this the beauty of life? To know that we have an exceptional natural capability to perform the same task but with a touch of our own unique twist; to know we're special in this world of nothing but similarities; to know that there is spice to life but that we all run on the blood of the color red.
