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Morocca Personal Statement

Decent Essays

As I walk around my neighborhood, I hear the chatter of the nearby people, but something is different. I can’t understand a single word they’re saying! This is my daily life.
Born in New York City with a family that emigrated from Morocco, I grew up (and currently live in) a predominantly Hispanic and African-American neighborhood. Inevitably, I frequently felt that I wasn’t quite connected with either my own culture or the cultures of my school peers, teachers, and community.
I have always felt this detachment due to all of my friends being from backgrounds that do not match mine. While I was able to appreciate New York City’s diverse communities in an intellectual way, I struggled with having no shared cultural bonds.
Entering Brooklyn Tech for high school changed much of that, while also changing little. I …show more content…

They both had grown up in Morocco! What did they know about my problem? But soon enough they realized that I needed to experience my culture firsthand in order to develop my own Moroccan identity.
Thus began my frequent journeys during summer breaks to gain a deeper insight into my Moroccan roots. I travelled to a myriad of Moroccan cities, including Casablanca, Rabat, Marrakech, and Tangiers. Aside from the cities, I also visited small towns. My hope was that I would discover something that had tied all of these places together—something truly Moroccan. Cuisine turned out to be one of those discoveries. At home, Moroccan food had been just “food.” But here, I was experiencing Moroccan food as if for the first time.
I never expected Moroccan cuisine to be the item that connected me strongly to my Moroccan identity. Visiting my parents’ homeland gave the food routinely ate at home in New York City a new context. I learned what foods were prepared at what events and how families came together to eat certain dishes. I learned how certain types of cookware were used in different parts of the

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