High school was a time to absorb culture, for me. I spent a lot of my life rejecting culture because I had this belief that you couldn’t really be American unless you were completely white-washed. Once I got to high school, I realized that every other American had another layer to them and it made […]
High school was a time to absorb culture, for me. I spent a lot of my life rejecting culture because I had this belief that you couldn’t really be American unless you were completely white-washed. Once I got to high school, I realized that every other American had another layer to them and it made them interesting and I wanted, not only to find the culture that I had abandoned, but also discover secrets about other cultures.
I found out that I was really interested in language and dance, especially. Did you know that “chai’, more phonetically pronounced as “chah”, means tea in Bangla? It also means tea in Hindi, in Korean, and I think I found out that in Japan, “oh-chah” is how they say tea. When I found that out, I think it brought the world a bit more together for me: cultural diffusion at its finest.
I didn’t have to hide watching Korean dramas or that I had previously watched Japanese anime in high school. My high school had one thousand less people than my middle school but it had much more diversity.
In my freshman year, the first event I had joined was a student-run musical called SING! A theme is provided by the directors of the graduating class from the year before and two groups (Freshmen & Juniors, Sophomores & Seniors) competed to make a production under an hour that fit the theme best. Alumni and teachers come on the two nights of the show and judge the show on all aspects.
SING! became my life. In my junior year, when the directors we had worked with for two years graduated, I became director along with someone who also came to Baruch actually. SING! meant more diversity as well. My co-director was Jewish and explained to me one day about the many Jewish holidays and how I would have to hold the fort down by myself on some days. I learned a lot of things that I hadn’t previously known.
Our first SING! was known for its diversity. We expressed it in language and in dance. We included a scene with a Ukrainian Cotton Candy Man and a Bhangra-filled Halal Cart guy. SING! never really explored different cultures because we had another event in the year that was about ethnic dance but the crowd was most excited during those two pieces of culture. Hearing those ethnic terms and watching ethnic dance that they might have been familiar with, those components really exhibited Queens, the ultimate melting pot.
Fast-forwarding a bit to another great high school memory of mine, the Festival of Nations. In terms of culture and dance, this event, by far, takes the cake. I remember joining Korean FON my freshman and sophomore year and people initially thinking it odd because I was nowhere near Korean. I did it anyways. Believe it or not, I knew most of the songs that they used. I listened to them when watching Korean dramas or variety shows (AKA lightly scripted reality shows). I might have known Korean culture a bit better than some of the other non-Koreans even though their skin color was closer. Over the years, I had joined Bengali, American, Caribbean, and Indian FON groups as well. Each group brought me more information about their culture. During my senior year, I led Bollywood FON with two of my friends. We made dances that reflected who we were: Asian-Americans and we did not feel bad about not being traditional like previous years’. Bengali FON made me Bengali. Caribbean FON made me Caribbean. Korean FON made me Korean. Indian FON made me Indian. American FON made me realize that America indeed does have culture as well. When I wasn’t practicing my own FON performances, I was watching the other ones. I learned Filipino stick-dancing, Chinese ribbon, Hispanic merengue, and many others.
During my senior year, our class was going to produce this book to learn more about the members of our grade. Each senior took a picture in a place that resonated with them and they responded to a prompt that gave us insight into their life. One of those pictures that I took is to the left of this post. I spent my years on the stage during high school. I have been on that stage as early as seven in the morning and I have left that stage as late as almost eleven at night. When my parents complained and thought only textbook learning was important, I went off on them for hours about how I learned about myself and other people during this time. I learned about people and diversity. I realized I liked language and took AP Latin when “senioritis” hit me. I did it out of my interest in language and dance and most important, culture.
That’s a snippet into my life at high school. If you didn’t want to read any of that, just understand that I spent four years on a stage learning about culture through people. Now that’s gone. I had some of my biggest accomplishments outside of the classroom in high school. My biggest concern is probably not being able to find something that I’ll be proud of again. Yes, I will join pre-professional clubs and study and nurture my skills for graduate school but a part of me is in a depression when I think about abandoning that part of me, the part of me that stands on the stage.
P.S. This was INCREDIBLY long. I did not plan for this to be INCREDIBLY long like this. I couldn’t decide on what to write on so I just wrote until I felt like it was a bit overbearing to keep reading about the same topic so I switched. If you’d like to hear more about me, I don’t know. Become friends with me and ask. I tend to talk a lot. If your interests match mine, feel free to also talk to me about those interests. We can be friends. 
