Losing A Part Of Myself
People have their own personal definition of assimilation. Assimilation for me is when you feel like you have to "abandon" a certain side of you in hopes to get acceptance from society. For example when I first came to America, I started to leave my Ecuadorian culture in hopes of making people like me more. I feel like students these days might also try to "hide" or abandon their cultural identity because of similar reasons. They might feel ashamed or embarrassed of their cultural traditions, etc. They could try to assimilate by changing the way they dress, not eating certain foods or even by acting a certain way at home and a certain way at school. Assimilation can be harmful for your mindset. When you try to fit in you also begin to lose a part yourself in the process. For example when I tried pushing my cultural background away, it led me to being confused on who I was. I had no idea who I was because sometimes I was too "Hispanic" ...
