When most people see me in this world, what they see is what I am on the outside: an East Asian girl, short, petite, studious, intelligent, cares about parents and parents' expectations, lacks adequate driving skills, opposed to laziness, gets through with merit and diligence.
Granted, I'm taking things from this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereotypes_of_East_Asians_in_the_Western_world
I hate this. Barely anyone sees past this bare surface, even people that I've known for a long time. It's absolutely terrible. Why can't people see beyond the obvious? Most people place me in a schema when they meet me - young, innocent, stereotypical Asian. That's it. They don't want to know about my personality, my thirst and need for intellectually-stimulating conversations, my passion for writing, my love of biology, my need to connect with people and my mission to help save the world. All it is is some stereotypical dragon lady or Geisha girl. Terrible.
I wish that people could just look past this barrier. This was what intrigued me about my ex; he was willing to look beyond the obvious and see me for something more, or at least my intellectual side. But ultimately he too placed me in a Dragon Lady/exotic Geisha girl category. Which is why it ended.
Why can't people just look beyond stereotypes and get to know the real person? Why can't they see what is really going on, what I really am, for my self? I spent so much of college trying to find my identity, especially since in HS I was so under the influence of my parents, family, cultural expectations, community expectations, worries about getting into college, and everything. Now that I'm in college, I finally for the first time have an outlet through which I can truly express myself. But ultimately, hardly anyone sees beyond that.
If only I could find someone, someone, a friend who would really look beyond that, beyond what appears on the surface.... that would truly be beautiful....
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