All around me, there is diversity. Diversity when I go to school, church, sports and other activities. Everyone has different opinions, different looks, different feelings. I feel like we need to respect that. In school, teachers teach us how to respect other people. Sometimes, that doesn’t always happen.
People have wrinkled their noses at my lunch, and laughed at other people’s accents. Even though I’m Asian American, that doesn’t mean that only happens to Asian Americans. We don’t respect diversity as much as we should. I feel relieved when I hear someone else is like me, when someone is Chinese or Korean. I feel relieved because I no longer have the doubt that I’m not the same, or different from everybody else. We do it because it makes us feel better to fit in, and exclude people who we don’t think ‘fits’ in.
Sometimes, I’m embarrassed about my culture. Last year I found myself using my lunch box as a shield, covering up my lunch so no one could see it, even though sometimes it was a normal lunch, like a sandwich or pasta, it became a habit. When I was in kindergarten, I saw my friend getting teased about her lunch, fish, rice and toasted seaweed. When I saw this unkindness, I instantly felt like this could happen to me. Once, I was sitting with my friend, and she pointed to my lunch. “That looks really good,” she said. It was chicken, rice, egg and a little soy sauce all mixed together. I looked at her lunch, a granola bar, gummy bears, a sandwich and carrots. I merely thought that she was trying to be nice, but maybe she actually thought it was good.
In a way, we are all the same. All the same when we play sports, all the same when we eat food, all the same when we wear clothes. And we are different. We are unique, special, and different in amazing ways. Different when we wear different clothes, eat different lunches, play the same games. Everyone deserves to be treated the same, and differently. Like my friend who thought my lunch looked good. Like the people who don’t make fun of people’s accents. We should respect people’s opinions, feelings and looks. We are full of diversity, but all together.
the lunch box insecurity is somehow a generational trauma. great essay and appreciate the vulnerability.
Pippa Kim’s essay is the true feeling from her experiences as growing in a diversity environment! Great essay!