Dana Mulligan
Falls Church, VA
I am totally, completely, one-hundred-and-ten percent of white decent. However, I identify as an Asian-American. Due to her father’s job, my mother grew up overseas in Taiwan and Hong Kong. She passed the culture she learned there on to me. We take our shoes off at the front door, have hidden stashes of green tea and Chinese children’s books, and eat stir-fry and dumplings for dinner more often than not.
Sometimes, I get made fun of for being one of the only white people in my school who takes Chinese. I feel like I belong in the Asian culture due to how I was raised, but I stick out like a sore thumb when I’m with all my Chinese friends. Occasionally I feel like I’m try to force myself into the culture, even though I know it’s a central part of who I am. But at the end of the day when I walk into the house, take off my shoes, and smell the stir-fry, I can’t help but feel grateful for the heritage I was given.
