Joy of Father's day TWO
본문
UCLA 를 졸업하고 CPA시험을 PASS한후 현재 SPAIN BARCELONA 대학에서 스페인어를 공부하는 둘째의 글임니다
Connie Kahng
I exit the freeway on a street marked Wilshire and try to merge from one end of the busy street to the other in the frantic city of Los Angeles. I can feel my heart palpitating and my palms sweat as I maneuver my way through traffic to Sproul Hall, UCLA. As I enter the Circle Drive, signs labeled “Freshman Orientation Parking” lead me up a high unfamiliar hill until I reach an outdoor parking lot. I thought to myself, so this is that great place they call “college”, where I would spend the next four years of my life preparing to go out into the real world. Looking back on this first taste of college life, I am amazed at how much I have changed as an individual.
One of the greatest realizations I had at UCLA came within the first few weeks of school. This was the realization that I was not only a female American striving for a great future, but that I was also an Asian American, striving to break from typical stereotypes. The neighborhood I grew up in was predominantly white, meaning I didn’t know what the stereotypes of Asian Americans were. Needless to say, UCLA is much more diverse society than Palm Desert. This was clearly proven to me during our first floor meeting in the dorm.
As dozens of people gathered around a common area, known as the study lounge, the Resident Assistants began introductions. I looked around the room and found myself in slight shock. Half of the faces in the room were Asian. This is not to say I never had contact with people of my own ethnicity or culture. Many of our family friends and relatives that I had grown up with were of Asian American descent. However, this situation was unique and different in that these were my peers and colleagues that I would be spending the next few years with on a day to day basis. The surprises didn’t end there. During the next several days, I explored campus with my roommate. On each outing, I encountered by different groups asking me to join the Korean American this and the Asian American that. At this moment I realized that I was not the only one who held stereotypes of other Asian Americans in my mind. They also had assumptions of me, including my religion, my friends, and my interests.
This new environment struck me as strange and unfamiliar and placed me in a position where I was unsure of myself. As days and weeks passed, I learned to deal with this minor identity crisis, and I soon found that I could not let anyone stereotype me into one group, race, or religion. This independence I found at UCLA has been one of my greatest assets. With it I feel I have accomplished several things I can be proud of. I will graduate in the Spring with a Bachelor’s of Arts in Economics, and a minor in Accounting. I can also leave UCLA knowing I contributed time, hard work, and energy into a cause I strongly believe in. This cause is a tutoring project called Bruin Partners, which helps students in the inner city of Culver. I have helped the same student for the past three and a half years. When we first started, she had difficulties reading and reciting her alphabet. Now I can proudly say that she knows her alphabet by heart and we read books together on a weekly basis.
I came to UCLA with many expectations of myself and of the school. I have been fortunate enough to use the tools UCLA provided and bettered myself as an intellect, an individual, and a humanitarian. I know that life will bring more challenges, some with success and some with defeat, but I am confident that I have the strength and foundation to face them head on.
