Molly Lai,
Milford, NH.
I was terrified of traveling as a child because I hated people asking if I was adopted. Or the more frightening question: Is this woman really your mother, you can tell me the truth? I am half Chinese (and looked more Chinese than English as a child) with a red-haired, blue-eyed, English-descent mother and I was always afraid they were going to take me and my sister away from her. The same thing would happen with my Chinese father: Are these your children? Only since hitting my twenties have people started to say I look like either my mother or father, but even now when I look in the mirror I don’t see that I look like either of my parents. I think being told as a child I didn’t look like them or that I didn’t belong to them shaped how I see myself. I’m a halfsie, but don’t identify strongly either way; some days I look Chinese and some days I look English. I’ve never really fit either side.
