Descriptive Essay (:

It was the first day of my freshman year at Science Leadership Academy and I was excited and nervous at the same time. I was the only person from my middle school to be accepted into SLA even though a majority of our eighth grade class applied.
I didn’t know what to expect because I was starting without knowing anyone at all and I didn’t attend Summer Institute. It was just a bunch of mixed emotions because with the amount of television I watch, I always saw high school as a brutal place.
When I arrived, I got off of the 7 bus and walked in through the doors. The café was packed and it was sad that with all of the people in the café, I didn’t recognize a single face. I stood near the wall like a lost puppy. Until two friendly people came around and said,
“Hi, how are you?”
Being shy, I replied quietly, “Hi, I’m Breeanna.”
“Oh, I’m Kristina and this is Gil.”
They were so friendly and I was glad to have met them. I hoped they were in my grade but sadly, Gil was a sophomore and Kristina was a junior. They began to ask if I knew anyone and I replied no. They were shocked and began introducing me to a bunch of random people. In every school I’ve ever been to, I have never been able to remember so many names. I was surprised that I met so many people.
For the first week of school, I hung out with many people and learned many names quickly. I guess it wasn’t so difficult to remember the names of basically everyone in the school. I had many different groups of friends. However, not all of those groups hung out with each other. I was kind of swapping back and forth between all my white friends group and my more mixed group. I didn’t really hang out with Asian kids because with all of the previous schools I’ve gone to, I was always the only Asian kid and my family isn’t a really traditional Asian family. My first Asian friend I met here was Pauline. She came up to me and introduced herself and we began talking. She then asked,
“How come you don’t have an accent?”
I looked at her confused and said, “What do you mean? I’m supposed to have an accent?”
“No but Asians have accents, you sound white.”
I’ve never really had many Asian friends so I didn’t know what she was talking about. I’m supposed to have an accent? It never occurred to me since going to an all white school in Delaware County, I sounded just like everyone else so I didn’t really think much about it.
Last year, I was known as the ‘twinkie’ because I looked Asian but I didn’t act like one. I always hung out with white people and supposedly sounded ‘white’. But this year, I met a new friend. She was a freshman and her name was Ellen To. I met her during lunch because Kristina introduced the two of us and said we were alike. That’s rare because I’m extremely loud and weird.
“Breeanna, meet Ellen. She’s evil like you.” Said Kristina.
“Oh my god! Hi do you like Big Bang?” Greeted Ellen.
“Hi, and yes?”
“Who do you like better, Taeyang or G-Dragon?”
I saw the look in her eyes and slid across the table and calmly said, “Taeyang”
The look in her eyes said it all. As her eyes got sharper and her face got bright red. It was funny because with my other friends, I could never have that kind of conversation with them. If I asked them about Big Bang, they would just give me a puzzled look.
I’ve never really attended school with Asian kids so I was sort of taken away from the experiences with other Asians. The only Asian people I hung out with were aunts and cousins. It was something new I found in a friend other than the same sense of style or choice in bands. But someone who knows how the typical Asian parents are – extremely strict, knows how weird it can be to be non-Caucasian and not Asian, and how fun and weird it is to express ourselves for whom we truly are. No matter how many years I spent with friends all over the city that are either Black or White, I’m still Asian on the inside and it’s just natural.
Not saying that we are all specified by our ethnicity, but it can also be defined by our culture and the culture of our family. My friends were either Catholic or Christian, but my family was Buddhists. Occasionally, I would go to church because of my mom’s friends, but that really isn’t my religion. With other Asians, they know what I’m talking about. But, not only does culture define who we are but what we eat can make us seem ‘different’. Yes, my mom does make a variety of food, but when the time comes that I want to invite friends over for dinner or a party, they would be used to something simpler and question what they’re eating.