Natalie Mariam Pattillo
Alpine, TX
It always seems that my ethnic background becomes a guessing game at dinner parties. Even strangers will come up to me and ask me “what are you..wait, let me guess…egyptian, hispanic, black.,? Usually, I want to say “I’m a human” but I allow the guessing game to continue until they’ve guessed incorrectly enough times or I’ll applaud them for being somewhat regionally correct. I’m culturally quirky, I’ve decided, but my ethnic make-up consists of 50 percent Caucasian, 25 percent Indian, and 25 percent Malay. I was born in Singapore but raised mostly in Texas. This typically gets the response , “wow, you are the melting pot”.
