əˈsiməˌlāt/1.take in (information, ideas, or culture) and understand fully.
From the moment I was born, I was forced to assimilate into a foreign culture. Being born into an Indian family, one would think that I would have adapted many Indian traditions, and that I would have followed the Indian stereotype. You know, the whole smelly kid that is a super-nerd and has no friends because he only associates with other super-nerds. Yeah well that whole stereotype thing didn't work out for me...like at all. I'm what some people call a coconut (hence the title of this blog post). I'm brown on the outside yet white as snow on the inside. I like to drive my Jeep with my aviators on and the roof down while listening to Lorde. I like to hangout with my white girlfriend-which my parents reluctantly accepted-while complaining about all the things that are "so" horrible in my life. Sound familiar?
Now you may be thinking, what does this have to do with assimilating. Well here's the catch, I assimilated so well that many of my friends now consider me to be American. Heck, some of my friends' parents go as far as to call me their adopted son. I somehow managed to be born into this world as an Indian and reject the stereotype of brown people while transforming myself into a member of the American society. Yes, even I consider myself to be a member of the White community. I was simply put into a pot as an ingredient and taken out as another glazed doughnut that joins the racks of all other similar donuts. Many people look down on me for doing so. They look at me with shameful eyes but what they don't realize is that if I had fulfilled the stereotype, I would have been bullied. I would have been seen as the smelly kid who had no friends and that is not who I wanted to be seen as. I just wanted to be a normal kid with normal friends and in the end that's what I turned out to be. I'm seen as a normal high-school student, a little bit of a try-hard sure, but nevertheless a normal high-school student. To be honest, in the back of my mind I do regret this change, I've lost a lot of respect because of it, but I know that overall this choosing of stereotypes helped me be the man I am today. I chose to follow the American kid stereotype and in doing so I have formed myself as the human being I am now and I have made amazing memories with great friends because of it and that's what matters.
I guess my life is much like the Native Americans we studied in class in the sense that I tried to switch stereotypes and ended up boxing up myself in another. I followed the same path that Victor did and ended up with the same outcome. But the difference between me and Victor is that, I chose to be the human I am today. I still follow some Indian stereotypes, for one I still want to be an engineer, but I also want to serve in the army. I still spend hours everyday studying, but I also workout constantly and work my physical limits to the max. In the end, I really am a coconut.
Loved this post Amun! Thanks for sharing your unique take on this topic. I enjoyed the anecdotes as well as your overall tone. Also that's awesome that you want to serve in the army. Well done, can't wait to read more of your posts!
ReplyDeleteThis is so true on every level. Your very first line is hyper thought provoking. In the beginning of the post it seems that the "foreign culture" your assimilating into is the American Culture, however when I was finished reading the post, the culture you were forced to assimilate into seems to be your Indian heritage. Well written and thought out.
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