One big disadvantage of being an immigrant in an unfamiliar place is feeling like a foreigner. The concept of otherness brings me strange memories and stories from my family’s past. I wonder most days what it means to be American and whether or not I should feel ashamed of that part of my identity. I consider myself a mix of so many backgrounds and identities that it’s quite blurry by now. I have the European and Jewish essence from my ancestors that brings me my favorite traditions and cultural love. I’m so tightly tethered to my family in Israel, where I feel the meditteranean joy and Middle-Eastern spice that I miss when I’m away. I have a love for Mexican culture brought into my life by one of the many people who raised me and I feel at home speaking Spanish. I’m so other in my essence, but I think that that’s what it means to be American. So do I truly belong here? Maybe a massive advantage of being an immigrant or descended from immigrants is that you have the privilege of belonging to many places and groups.
The feeling fluctuates. Everywhere I go I seem to find conflict that changes the way I think and process my identity. It hurts me to stay in Israel for months and see the corruption and pain that the government continues to cause, but the people and the spirit there bring me euphoria every time I visit. I’m foreign in Israel because I live here. I’m foreign here because my family’s from Israel. I can only imagine the struggle of uprooting oneself and taking a journey to a new place where everything is different. I understand what it feels like living far away from the people you love. I guess that my immigrant voice comes from a mix of ideas, not unlike my mix of identities. I get my voice from those who came before me and continue to better my life today. I feel a medley of sympathy, empathy and compassion. Maybe it’s possible that the mixture that I am makes me American. In that case, we all can be. Anonymous '23 (BHSEC Queens)
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