Personal Narrative: Standing Out Among My Class

Throughout my beginning years of elementary school, I have felt like I have been the one standing out among my class. Though I was not born in China like the rest of my family, I could still be distinguished as a foreigner because of how much I was involved with my Chinese culture with my family. Attending Castlemont Elementary School in Campbell California, I was one of the few Asian American students in my class, often known as “the Few Five”. The other kids did not particularly care or judge me, in fact I had no problems making friends, but deep inside, I believed my Chinese background made me feel different from my classmates.
The other kids brought normal typical lunches to eat while I brought Chinese food that my mother had packed for me. The other boys did not have hair as long as my

Hoping it would not hurt my mother’s feelings, I asked if she could start packing other foods into my lunch box, such as sandwiches or Lunchables because that’s what the other kids brought. Confused by my request, my sweet mother fulfilled my request. “Whatever makes you happy” she said. I also wanted to change my hairstyle. The nape of my hair ran down to the middle of my neck, making me look like a girl with a bad haircut. For this change, I moved from getting haircuts from my mother in the bathtub to going to barber shops to get haircuts. Snip snip, I remembered hearing as the barber cut off the nape. At first my mother was a little upset about have my name trimmed away because of it’s symbolism in our culture, but accepted it after she too realized that it not very stylish. In addition, I started buying new clothes from all kinds of stores to replace the Chinese brand clothing I had. With my style looking less “fob like”, and my lunches not being questioned, my cultural was completely masked, and finally felt like I belonged with my