Who I Am Not

My name is Jacky Cheng. Not Jackie Chan, as every teacher, classmate, friend, and stranger marvelously mispronounces when they first meet me, halfway through the school year, and even at graduation. I live in Delaware, not the rural villages of China that my family’s roots come from. I play lacrosse, not the violin. My favorite class is European History, not Discreet Mathematics. My favorite dessert is cheesecake, not fortune cookies.

Did you know fortune cookies are a Western invention? I don’t think they exist in China…

You can say I’m just westernized, but I hate categorizing people into specific geographic and cultural areas. I mean, c’mon, this is not the 1800s. It’s not like I just sailed into California from Shanghai, chopped off my queue, and decided to settle into a life of McDonalds. Yes, I enjoy a good burger, but I’ll take an onigiri over those buns any day.

And yes, even if onigiris are from Japan.

Look, most of you will probably live to 80 years old or so, right? Add in all the hours you use sitting on a toilet (something like 3 years…) and you just don’t have time to create genres for people to fit into. So try this instead: Next time you’re out and about meeting new people, pick one attribute you’re least likely to associate with that person, and ask him or her about it. Chances are you’ll be surprised at how culturally diverse people are within themselves. For example, who would’ve thought my Irish-looking, Red Sox-loving, science teacher Mr. Nemitz could actually speak fluent Swahili?

Of course, you might not want to go up to an African-American and ask if he’s ever joined the KKK…