About ABC is Me...

The acronym for ABC is usually referred to as, “American-Born Chinese,” but I have a different interpretation of it. See, I was born in Canada, but grew up American. So, to me, ABC means, “American, But Chinese.” Growing up, I often felt I had to stifle my ethnicity. Even though I’ve lived in America basically my entire life, I didn’t learn English until I was 5 and was completely ignorant of American pop culture. This lead to me being teased a lot by my classmates by my “foreignness”, despite the fact I don’t remember living anywhere besides Illinois. Thus, as a mean to survival in suburbia, I tried to be as “American” as possible. However, it wasn’t until I matriculated at UIC that I realized that being “American” comes in all ethnicities and colors. Being “American” means being yourself unapologetically and being uninhibited by labels.