Tasnim Khan Literacy Narrative Scene

As school days were going by and I continued to conceal my ethnicity, I began to realize that being dissimilar from the people surrounding me was not necessarily a bad thing. I was in chorus class and my crush at the time told me, “You smell like Indian noodles but don’t worry it smells really nice like I would love to smell like Indian noodles.” My parents had cooked noodles the night before and my clothes ended up absorbing the scent. I did not know how to take that compliment but coming from someone I admired at the time made it sort of pleasant to hear? I mean, I still was not Indian and so I corrected him. “Actually, they made Bengali noodles, but thanks, it tasted good.” He and I eventually became friends after that but at the end of the day, all he remained was an innocent crush. I started posting more pictures of myself in cultural clothing on social media and the next day people would still look at me the same way. Perhaps, I was creating an illusion in my mind that people were looking at me differently but in reality, no one really cared. My group of close friends began to grow, and they appeared more interested in my culture rather than disgusted.