My Identity Essay

The first day in the United States is one of the best day and most thrilling days in my life. My father and my older sister move to Malaysia to get a job and support our family due to financial difficulty and lack of job opportunity in Burma. After a few years, my father and my sister were able to enter as immigrant and they were sent to the United States as immigrants through United Nation. After being apart with my father and my sister for more than a decade, my parents decide to move completely to America where more opportunities are available for a brighter future. My family faces many obstacles during the process of migrating to America. Despite all the struggle that are on our way, my family finally arrives in the United States and face major changes in life.

There are millions of different countries in this world. Some are privileged, others are not. Some flee war-ridden countries in hopes of finding a better place to live and a fresh start. These people that move from one country to another are immigrants. America is full of immigrants, in fact our country was built on immigrants. But, a majority of these people are ostracized and shunned for their beliefs, race, and plenty of other things. The excerpts from the stories A Quilt of A Country and The Immigration Contribution, which both compare and contrast each other, discuss how America’s background was formed and the different people that helped construct America. We are all different, and that is what makes us great.

Growing up in the US as an immigrant, my childhood was a little different from most people’s. I faced many struggles due to the differences in cultures, social, and economics. However, I was able to overcome all those challenges and become a more humble, responsible, and determined individual because of my ability to adapt quickly, be compassionate, and stay goals-oriented.

Friedrich Nietzche, a German philosopher quoted, “That which does not kill us, makes us stronger.” The most meaningful event in my life was when my twin daughters came into life. I am an immigrant that moved to this beautiful country when I was only thirteen years old teenager. Only one more family out of many that decide to come to this country hoping for better future and try to achieve the American Dream.

Growing up as the product of poverty and migration has always forced children to mature early. Children born to immigrant parents are not always granted the privilege that is childhood. We are forced to grow up and help our parents navigate a world that is as foreign and complex to them as it is to us. This incredibly complex and confusing world that children of immigrants face often leaves a mark on one’s family—a mark that is oftentimes painful.

I was never the type of person to really question my identity; it was never anything too important to me. Until recent events that have happened to the world that has really brought my attention to who I am and why I should be proud of my heritage and identity. It’s what separates me from other people. The small unique things that create the picture of the type of person that I am. Identity means to me who I am, where I have lived, and how I treat people.

As an immigrant myself, I know the struggles, hardship, and the difficulties that come with being accepted to the United States, as well as the struggles with becoming a citizen. The many barriers and the conflict that my family and I had to endure were very exhausting. For example, the many denials, then anticipation but finding out we weren’t accepted. Dealing with the rejection was especially hard for us. However, that didn't stop us; we knew that there will always be a chance as long as we kept on trying. The wait was well worth it because I can honestly say that my life has changed for the better. Even though I was too young back then to really understand the situation, I could still realize that there was something wrong every time I

Ronald Takaki, a frequent writer of cultural backgrounds, reminds us that, “America does not belong to one race or one group, the people in this study remind us, and Americans have been constantly redefining their national identity from the moment of first contact on the Virginia shore. By sharing their stories they invite us to see ourselves in a different mirror.“ Out of my fellow composition students, at State University, I am the only one whose great great grandparents came over to the USA. Out of twenty students, including myself, I found a surprising number of five parents, eight grandparents, and six great grandparents who immigrated to this wonderful country that we call America. Until recently I never would have never thought of

The following is a research report and the research done is aimed at understanding the way in which people consume online news and what role this plays in an individual 's sense of identity and culture.The project is part of a third year Media Studies Course, MDIA 310 Cultural Identity and the Media at Victoria University of Wellington and is coordinated by Joost de Bruin, a Senior Lecturer at this university, each student in the class has undertaken the same research process.

The most difficult thing to tell anyone about me is my identity, not that there’s much there. It’s the fact that I’m a privileged white male; I have no history. The only thing about me is that I’m different than everyone else. But isn’t everybody? Many people say they’re a cat in a dog world, a fish swimming among sharks. But the reality is that yes, you are different, but everybody else is too. You are unique; everybody is. Most would say I’m idiosyncratic, a stupidly complicated synonym for weird. I do the same things as everybody else, but in my own way. For instance, in elementary school, I read around 100 books, I used to knit, I can juggle, solve a rubik’s cube and so much more.

Identity, an ambiguous idea, plays an important part in today’s world. To me identity can be defined as who a person is or what differentiates one person from another. Identity would be a person’s name, age, height, ethnicity, personality, and more. A quote by Anne Sexton states “It doesn't matter who my father was; it matters who I remember he was”(Anne Sexton). This quote helps me define identity because I believe it is saying that identity is what people are remembered by. When some people think of identity, words such as, uniqueness, distinctiveness, or individuality may come to mind. However, I disagree with this because when I think of identity I think of mimicry, self-consciousness, or opinions.

Immigration is a hot social and political topic but for some individuals, it is a very serious topic that greatly impacts their life and is a key factor contributing to one's self-identity. For this interview project, I chose to interview my stepmom, Francis, who identifies as part of the 1.5 generation because she immigrated to the United States from the Philippines when she was four or five which was in 1972 or 1973. In the 70s you had to do an application to get approved to go to the U.S. and it took 5-7 years to get approved. Her dad was an accountant and went to the U.S. first and was issued a Green Card and went to Hawaii. Each individual of her family had to be petitioned to go to the U.S. and she has 7 siblings, so 8 of them total. Her oldest brother Joe went first after their father. It was pretty much you got your ticket and left because you didn't know if you would ever have the opportunity to go some other time. Her mom received her Green Card sometime after that but could not leave her children so it was in the next wave she left for the United States. In the next wave, the government randomly picked four of the kid’s names and Francis was one of the four picked so she went to the United States. They were separated from the rest of their siblings for 7-8 years. Her mom felt terrible leaving three of her kids in the Philippines, but Francis aunt lived in the Philippines and raised the three kids. In the end, they would all make it to the United States. Before

My dad immigrated from Haiti with his family at the age of eleven and with them they brought a strong cultural identity and ideals. My grandparents settled in Miami, Florida, with five children, including my dad, and the aspiration to live the “American Dream” that is sought by immigrant families. My dad often told me of stories of how when he first came he and his family could barely keep up as they tried to acculturate to the U.S., how they struggled with english and how he and his siblings felt the need to work twice as hard in school to catch up to the curriculums. His mother a maid at a hotel and his father a dishwasher trying hard to support a seven family household. My three uncles have since ventured out into their own, a constant pillar of support for me to lean on; our conversations often being instilled with life lessons that have me wanting to better myself.

As of 2016, 27% of the US population are immigrants and that percentage increases steadily by about 2% every year. My father is one of the 27%. Each and everyone of these people, including my father, has a story of what led to their immigration from their home country to the U.S.. In times like these, with our current administration, to be called an “Immigrant” seems to have become more negative throughout the recent months. We must reflect on and analyze at every individual's story only then can we truly understand the hardships of immigrants and the socioeconomic disadvantages that most immigrants must suffer through.

When an individual is born, legally on their birth certificate, they are given a sex, either male or female. On the other hand, an individual’s culture is usually learned and passed down from generation to generation. That is one example of the way people are influenced on how they should behave depending on their gender. Both gender and ethnicity are used to shape a person. Furthermore, parents teach their children from birth who they are, but as an individual gets older, they decide whether to accept the sex they are born with or not. Some people do not respect that in the same way that some people do not respect other people’s ethnicity. This can be seen in the mistreatment of people in the articles, E.J Graff’s “The M/F Boxes,” and Peggy Orenstein’s “What Makes a Woman a Woman?” However, when people begin to realize that important aspects such as gender and ethnicity should be respected, there can be positive changes in society as seen through transgender rights being supported and the Black Lives Movement. Gender and ethnicity shape a person and are aspects that should be respected, thus the acceptance of someone’s gender can positively shape conceptions of their ethnicity.