Personal Experience: Overcoming Isolation

My biggest challenge is to open up myself. At age eight, I left everything behind in China to start a new life with my parents in the United States. I was eager to make foreign “laowai (Chinese term that represents westerners)” friends and having one of those “American life.” However, it was not long before I realize that I was different than everyone else. My elementary school was an all American school, no other Asian; I was the only Chinese person in the school. One the first day of school, I remember a group of kids surrounded me and made signs at me and calling me “Ching Chang Chong.” I couldn’t understand what they were talking about, but I was able to follow their gestures and expressions. In second grade, I learned nothing but English:

Ever since I overcome the inability to understand others, I noticed my biggest obstacle: Isolation. My most and wonderful friend in elementary school moved away to a different state. I soon became an antisocial person because of my ethnicity. In junior high school, my English teacher asked us to write about our feelings towards our peer. That enlightened me, I need to talk about my feelings and spread my emotions. I wrote about my isolation and comparing myself to an animal in the zoo. The teacher posted the essay publicly on the bulletin board. A week later, a group of people wanted to be my friend. How crazy is that! I was amazed; I opened up myself and accepting the people around me. Moreover, I also influenced other minor races to open up themselves. I challenge myself to do different activities since I have nothing to lose. I soon realized the problem of the isolation is not my ethnicity; it was my unwillingness to accept others and challenge myself. I was scared that other people won’t like me because I’m different. I had so many opportunities to make friends, but my cowardliness prevented me from accepting those opportunities. I found the solution to my isolationism. Now, I am willing to take challenges and open up myself to many different things; in the end, there’s nothing to lose. I am different than others, I have a diverse background and faces various challenges; I am different than others, but I am