Now Proud of my Heritage

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I moved out of home at 17 and at 19 years old I moved to London. The moving out of home stage didn't go entirely to plan but I'll elaborate in the next chapter. It was the move to London that's relevant here. To say London is a multicultural stockpot is an understatement. Being in a city resembling an ethnic selection box brings ethnicity to the surface, including my own. This was a subject I wasn't happy to share. I will emphasise I'd previously spent a number of years visiting London so I wasn't a stranger. Where I'd grown up was on the outskirts of London so I could be there in under an hour. Plus I had a London weekend job at 15 years old which was an achievement given the legal minimum age was 16. I was also enjoying regular outings to clubs and raves around 17 so I wasn't being deprived of the London experience. However I don't know if it was the ingestion of certain illegal substances during those years but issues regarding cultural diversity didn't grab my attention. It was only after permanently moving to the City that I became aware of the topic. Everywhere I went from the supermarket to travelling on the bus I was confronted with the multicultural aspect. You can be in one area believing you're in Pakistan, a tube journey later and you're arrived to a Jewish settlement or Turkey or Jamaica. Consequently the diverse ethnicity of the inhabitants meant I was frequently asked where I was from, something I wasn't accustomed to. I don't know if it was a chat-up line as predominately men would enquire but if it was I wished they'd chosen another subject. Asking where my parents came from was a dialogue that quite frankly I didn't enjoy.

I won't be shy about the fact I wasn't proud to be genetically Iranian. I could think o...

... middle of paper ...

...I think others hold back. By openly commenting on the subject despite such ignorance at least means the misconceptions can be addressed.

These days when people ask me about my ethnicity I have no reservations about telling the truth. Aside from the fact that I can't be bothered to lie, I don't want to lie. Ironically I am now proud of my heritage and this has been the format with many things during my life. It has been the aspects I've once hated I've later come to love and embrace. The pride I have for my ethnicity is not solely born out of a previously dented shame either. Sure there was a part of me that felt betrayed by society. I was made to feel unnecessarily ashamed of my ethnic roots but I do not blame any one or single factor. The cause of my embarrassment was the unfortunate concoction of misrepresentation, a complicated Iran and youthful sensitivity.

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