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The way Trevor Noah talked about his family and how important they were to him is something that I took inspiration from while writing my story. Throughout his whole story he talks about how much his mother loved him, like in chapter 6 when Trevor writes, “It was discipline in the form of love.” And again much later in the book he writes, “But it doesn’t always work, because you’re giving the kid tough love when maybe he just needs love.” (pg. 161) Although there is more background and depth behind these quotes they both have one thing in common, love. I think that closely relates to the culture of family. “That you can love a person you hate ,or hate a person you love.”(pg. 188) I think this quote holds a lot of truth when talking about any family. Nothing is perfect and sometimes it is hard to love them but in the end loving your family no matter what is so important. In Trevor Noah’s own vignettes he explored a sense of not knowing where he belonged even in his family, which is a truly hard feeling. I think an example of this in the book is when his grandmother hits his cousins and not him because he was half white, and again when he said, “I was an anomaly wherever we lived.”(pg. 84) Struggling to belong is a hard thing to go through and Trevor Noah explored this feeling a lot in his book which helped influence how I wrote my vignette. A huge thing Trevor Noah used in his vignettes to reach the reader was humor. Humor is never something I’ve really used in my writing, but one thing I did try to do like Trevor Noah was use lots of description. While reading his story it was almost like you were in the moment because of the way he described things. I took a lot of inspiration from this and I wanted my story to be something that people would read and feel like they were part of the moment while it happened. The culture of one’s family is a very complex thing to describe. I tried to add in little details, moments that may not seem important but would end up contributing to the reader being able to understand and get insight on how my family works. One of the main themes of our unit was Identity, and specifically what influences our identity. A huge thing that influences my identity is my family which is why I chose to write this specific story. My family makes me who I am, every part of my identity has been somehow shaped by my family. That is why I think that family is so important, they are constantly shaping and reshaping us. Family and identity seamlessly fit together, and I wanted to show that by writing this story a story of a normal night with my family.

I Decided to write about this because it’s something I’m very involved in, reselling and the reselling community/culture. I wanted to give some perspective to what I spend countless hours working and what I’ll continue to work on. Trevor Noah’s story inspired me a lot, especially his writing style, how he talked in 3rd person but also had some parts in 1st person.The way trevor started out with not much at all, to literally being born a crime, now to being an extremely popular comedian was really motivating since i started reselling with $0.To this day that motivation is how I succeeded. I feel like my memoir addressed the question of what culture do you belong to, for me I belong to many just because of what I am but I choose to be a part of the reselling culture. I now own 3 companies and have built over 4 bots using javascript supporting multiple sites. This month I have made more money than the minimum wage job I’m not even old enough to get. I also now know various programming languages and skills that have opened up several early job opportunities for me. If you want to check out a few of my companies, you can find them here: Omni AIO: An all in one checkout tool supporting multiple sites Omni Notify: The best group that provides all the information you need to start reselling Omni Notify Proxies: The newest addition to Omni, to serve your botting needs

Some specific things that I related to in Trevor Noah’s book, Born a Crime, is that he said he never really fit in; he just bounced around groups that were split racially and I relate to that. At my old school I also thought I never fit in. I had no friends that I could relate to, I just hovered around in my friend group not really understanding them. I also care about Asian-Americans and their experience of getting bullied, the same way I did, and wanted to write this essay to make Asian-Americans not feel alone like the way I did. The way Trevor explored his own Identity was that he went to a new school, looked around to see all of that was split racially and just looked at which group he would fit in the best (Chapter 4, Chameleon, Pages 40-46). I felt like that was me looking around at my old school trying to find friends that I fit in with. Eventually, I found friends but still found I fit in with them.

Trevors’ writing impacted me to write about the time where I felt like I didn’t fit in/got bullied because since the Pandemic happened a lot of things unexpected things happened to my community that are just so shocking to learn about and surprised that people aren’t even going to do or talk about what happened to my community since the Pandemic hit. Also some of Trevor’s comedic moments in the chapter made me want to make my memoir with some moments that are comedic. Some storytelling techniques I used in my vignette is that I was talking to a person about something personal that happened to me in my life and seeing if they can relate to what I said or see what’s been happening in my community.

I did choose humor like Trevor Noah because I am not a very serious person and a person who kind of laughs at their own pain but lowkey hurting inside yet I used humor just to add some comic relief in my vignette instead of trying to bury my thoughts when I got bullied. I wrote my vignette like I was speaking to an outsider (that never had an experience that I had) face to face and showing them the pain that I’ve been through and how horrible it is to go through that experience and wanting them to feel the way I felt in those moments I got bullied, not to make them feel bad for me or hurt them but to open up their eyes what is happening to the other sides of reality then just one side.

This vignette addresses one of the essential questions, How do our various cultures influence our identities?, because being as an Asian-American it’s like being a person that is in the community/system but no one counts you as one. You’re just like a ghost floating around, no one caring, no one seeing you, no one knowing you exist. I hated being an Asian-American I wanted just to hide in a corner and wait there until people started noticing that there are more than two races but I had to face reality on my own and explore, and soon to find out that there is a community that sees the way I see, a group that shares about their experience being an Asian-Americans, the times they got bullied, social media accounts showing love to Asians. I finally felt that I belonged and finally fit in a community/system. Then not feeling like a ghost and wanting to hide until I woke up from my nightmare.

I think the mix of Trevor’s stories about being ugly and his identity crisis with being black, colored, and white at the same time inspired this. Him talking about his step-father’s (Abel) community and their toxic practices also inspired this. In chapter 10 he talks about his bad acne and unruly afro hair which I relate to on a spiritual level. In chapter 18 he speaks of his step father’s toxic culture with men being the workers who can do anything to the women who stay in the house to take care of children and the house. It made me think of my culture’s toxic practices and how have they affected me? This idea came to me quickly because this had a huge impact on how I looked at myself and lived with myself. This was really personal. I think Trevor’s writing style stuck to me in the way that I tried to implement the way I talk while also not trying to completely lose the reader with my speech. I noticed he didn’t talk exactly “proper” in this book. It felt like he was actually speaking to me when reading. I don’t think I put any humor in. I knew it wouldn’t work out considering I can barely tell a funny story and it actually sounds funny. The serious route is the best for me. I gave background information on words regarding my hair in case they didn’t know what to imagine when I talked about it. I gave examples of how the culture was “toxic” and I even gave a personal experience that I know is common among the community I am discussing. I think my memoir shows the effects of not knowing enough about our culture. It shows the effects of my culture being twisted and molded into something that makes us forget our original identity, The stuff we were born with. I think it even showcases a glimpse of the mental effects.

Reading Trevor Noah´s book made me realize I am not the only one that feels/felt torn between multiple cultures at a young age. He was brave enough to talk about everything in his life both good and bad. That’s inspiring. The way he talked about his family and friends and the effects they had on him shows how open and confident he is. It isn’t every day that you have an identity crisis at a young age so seeing Trevor talk about it made me less nervous to talk about it. My memoir explained in detail about a kid stuck between the lifestyles of the biggest influencers in their life. The kid (being me) is stuck and doesn’t know which lifestyle would look good on him from others’ perspectives. I go on to explain the lifestyles of each of the influences in my life and how they have already affected me. Then the story goes into realization on how others opinion arent the most important thing to life, it’s about what I do and if it makes me happy. That gives me the conclusion that life is about making sure what you do makes you happy. If you not happy with what you do then how can you enjoy life? Speaking of enjoyment, please enjoy the story. (Please note that there is another page for the last two chapters you may have to click on the pdf to see it)

In my vignette, I wanted to capture the main ideas and values of my religion and how those values have shaped my identity and who I am today. I have realized from my experience with the salad that some people are willing to learn new things about the world around them, but the resources to do so haven’t always been available to them. Additionally, if the salad taught me one thing, it would have to be to appreciate the little blessings and pockets of peace that make up our everyday lives. Being Muslim is something that I never realized the weight of on my identity and who I am. I have realized though that this little small moment from my busy everyday life has taught me values that I can’t help but share with others. It is always important to look at the bigger picture and not take small things for granted, especially opportunities for more growth and knowledge. I decided to pick a few things from Noah’s memoir and I decided to write about an encounter that I didn’t realize the worth of until after it like he has with his experience with the camera. Noah used a lot of humor in his memoir which I didn’t think was the way I wanted it to go however I did include a lot of my thoughts and reactions at different points as he did when he wrote about his experiences.

Trevor Noah inspired me to tell this specific story just because he mentions a lot of things about how not to mix culture with other cultures. He also talked about different challenges and situations that he went through that gave him a different perspective and also to not commit that again. In chapter 13, Trevor talks about how he became friends with this boy named Teddy. They were great friends and always were there for each other but they did illegal things when they were together but one day the police caught them but Trevor managed to run away and not get caught. I still think what Trevor did wasn’t right, but Teddy wanted Trevor to have a good life so he had his back. I know you might think, “what does this have to do with my vignette?” but it somewhat resonates with my story because Trevor and Teddy trusted each other and always had each other’s back. In my case, I knew and trusted some people from that church but they talked behind peoples’ or even my own back, meaning they aren’t trustworthy and because of the mistakes the people made, it was hard to tell if that is what we learned in church or not but I realized that they taught themselves that and brought it to church thinking it was ok when it wasn’t. I liked Noah’s writing style because although there is humor, you can still see the conversations he had with people in that chapter, and so that’s why I chose to do the same as he did. I decided to add a little humor, and I’m not sure if it sounded funny, but to me, I thought some parts of my story were. I also decided to use dialogue. The way I thought of telling my story to other people was by telling them how I felt in that moment by using a little humor and showing the conversation I had listened to, which I think helps the reader know what is going on and puts them in the moment. My vignette addresses one of the essential questions about identity because this story that occurred in my life gave me a different perspective of things and made me realize that I should never mix my two cultures but separately, they can help teach me things that help shape who I am.

Trevor Noah’s book really inspired me on how to write a good story. Writing this story felt easy, smooth, and I actually liked it. Usually, writing is hard and I always blank on what to say during a writing piece. But now, ever since I read “Born a Crime”, I have a sense that writing just comes a little more natural to me. I have adopted a few of Noah’s writing styles, for example instead of beating around the bush, I just said what I thought and it made the story more interesting. Also, one of the main writing styles of his is foreshadowing, which I made sure to implement into my story. I sort of stated how getting to play guitar was a long shot, and that I had history that would determine if I got one or not, but I did not say until later what that history was. I didn’t really state what my culture was in the story, but I don’t think I really need to. My culture for guitar specifically is virtually none. But, my culture for music is strong in my family, hence the part where my dad wants me to get into it. Another very important part of Trevor Noah’s book is the sense of belonging. He never feels like he really belongs, but finally finds it through experience, and comedy, and a whole bunch of different things. But I never felt as though I belonged in music. As I said in the story, I went through a few instruments without ever really feeling them. It was always boredom that drove me away, which just blossomed into hatred for the thing. So just like in “Born a Crime”, although it took time, I finally found what I had been looking for. My identity is definitely influenced by my culture. Hell, I would’ve never picked up an instrument at all if it weren’t for my music culture. I’d probably find something else to occupy my time with other than music. But, I didn’t, thanks to my culture, and how it is passed down through generations, like my dad to me. I feel like that really resonates with Trevor, because there are so many things that were passed down from his family to him.