First Generation Children In American Culture

First generation children like me are often known as ABCD’s, or American-born Confused Desis. Torn between our Indian traditions and American culture, we sometimes feel misfit in both cultures. We are stuck at this intersection where we feel forced to decide to either turn one way or another. My parents left their family and roots behind for the promise that they would be able to pursue opportunities not available in India. Yet their new home in America was also a place where their mother culture continued to flourish. They went out into the world and worked hard, but they also shrugged off their office clothes like disguises when they came home. Then they sat on the floor, ate with their fingers, and watched an old Bollywood movie like every other Indian back home. It didn’t make them less engaged in American society, or less appreciative of the opportunities that they traveled across the world for. But they never expected the country to celebrate our cultural differences. We were already doing that at home, within our own little cultural bubbles. …show more content…
I had spent much of my life trying to fit in but struggled. On one hand, I was already too western for my parents who brought me up with Indian traditions and values. On the other hand, I was too foreign for the cool kids at school who constantly went out to party with their boyfriends. I had to manage a cultural juggling act, trying to hold on to those aspects of my mother culture that nourished my upbringing but to discard aspects that were becoming irrelevant here in my American