piecing together an identity - by Ashley

When I was applying to college, I wrote several drafts of a college application essay about growing up between Taiwan and the US and what my second-generation Asian American identity means to me. A teacher told me that my application would never stand out among all of the other applicants writing about the cliché same old thing. So, begrudgingly, I wrote 650 words about cleaning my room instead (ironically way more common of an experience lol). Earlier this year, I went to Japan with my grandparents and found myself really marinating in those ineffable eldest-daughter-to-Asian-immigrant-parent feelings again. The following is an essay I wrote on the flight home from that trip. An homage to the common app essay I wrote in 2018 that never saw the light of day. On the 14-hour plane ride from New York to Tokyo, I watched the movie Past Lives, a Korean American story about immigration, assimilation, friendship, love, and our past lives figuratively and literally. I related a lot to the main

When I was applying to college, I wrote several drafts of a college application essay about growing up between Taiwan and the US and what my second-generation Asian American identity means to me. A teacher told me that my application would never stand out among all of the other applicants writing about the cliché same old thing. So, begrudgingly, I wrote 650 words about cleaning my room instead (ironically way more common of an experience lol). Earlier this year, I went to Japan with my grandparents and found myself really marinating in those ineffable eldest-daughter-to-Asian-immigrant-parent