Identity Research Paper

Submitted By Betamillion
Words: 739
Pages: 3

Identity Essay 1
Kyomi Ota
Mrs. Hudak
AP English 11th
February 2013

I'm originally from Peru but on my father's side my family is Japanese. Since I was too young, I could not fully learn the Japanese language but I managed to learn the basic stuff on my own free time. Here in America, I would be considered mixed, but yet I consider myself full Peruvian, because I lived in Peru for 13 years but you'd be surprised of how many westerners and Asians live there, it's like a mini-United States in Latin America, so once I came here it didn't shocked me as much as to others. I still remember the day my father offered me to move to the States. I knew it was going to be a big change but I did not hesitate and instead, I looked at it as a new experience hopefully I wouldn't regret, and so far, I don't. I met so many amazing people here! Even though I had to leave my family and friends at such a young age, I wanted to grant my mother's desire for me to become a successful professional and intellectual, and for which I came. Nevertheless, I miss so much my family and friends, there is not a day I don't think about them; I love them so much! I remember I got here on winter, it was on January some weeks after Christmas and it was crazy cold! However, the temperature in Florida on winter it’s not as cold as it is here in Virginia, I lived in Florida for my first two months in the United States before I permanently moved to Richmond, so imagine how BIG of a
Identity Essay 2 change was for me on the very first year! But before I moved to Virginia, my father took my siblings and I throughout the East Coast all the way to Canada. New York impressed me so much, it was just like I imagined it to be, but I had to face another challenge other than the little English I knew before I came... foreigners (To me, Americans) intimidated me SO much! I felt like I was strange for some reason, like if I didn't really fit here, and sometimes I still do. They were so tall! And palid/dark, and seemed so... different. But eventually, I lost the fear of being different, and think in a different way as I did before moreover, it took me a long time to adapt to how people lived here, especially in Virginia once I first established here, (No sidewalks?!) I honestly thought I was going live in a forest since it is mostly a rural area, and I'm from the city so it was another big change for me. America is indeed a GREAT place to live, it's