I used to hate being different. I hid from it, tried to fit in, and stayed quiet as much as I could. Except for one day. Today is Chinese New Year. Every year, in the middle of winter, we celebrated this special holiday in our home in South Carolina. For years, my parents drove six hours from our small town near Charleston to Atlanta to buy traditional foods and to remind us that even when we were halfway around the world from where they were born, we should not forget our traditions. Throughout most of my life, I tried to fit in by hiding being different, each year on Chinese New Year, I reveled in being different. This was a special day that connected us with thousands of years of culture even though we lived half way around the world. My parents accepted that we grew up American, but on this day, they made us follow all of the rules. No washing your hair or sweeping so you don’t wash away the prosperity. Wear brand new clothes to bring in the new year as a fresh start. Eat traditionally symbolic foods like noodles for longevity, dumplings for good fortune, and rice cake for growth. It was the one day I didn’t want to be like everyone else. I wanted to celebrate and share our traditions with my classmates. Several times, I handmade bookmarks for each of them on which my mom hand-scripted Chinese characters for their names. I even brought some traditional foods to share with them and dressed in traditional clothes (they were cute embroidered Chinese pajamas, but no one in South Carolina knew the difference). My children are growing up so differently than I had. They live in a place where their traditions are celebrated in school, and they can openly be themselves without feeling alienated from their friends and classmates. As we celebrate Chinese New Year each year, I am reminded of all of those years when my parents kept our traditions alive in a place that was so unwelcoming to those who were different. And I appreciate their desire to instill in us a bit of rich history that binds us to the past and I hope we can pass down to our children and theirs. #lunarnewyear #chinesenewyear #happylunarnewyear #yearofthetiger [for the occasion, I pulled out my digital pen and created this NFT, or what we used to call drawing]
