How Different Culture Made Me Realize the Importance of My Individuality

A lot of misinterpretation and grouping occurs in this world which causes common misconceptions to take place. As soon as anyone sees someone who is asain they will immediately assume that they are Chinese or Filopino without understanding that there are 48 different asian countries in the world an even greater amount of ethnicities present in it. The other day when my mom and I were at a store, a woman came up to us and began speaking to us in a different language, and after awhile of her probably not getting the response she wanted she finally asked us, “aren’t you guys Filipino?”, after correcting her and clearing the misconception she quickly left. I’m sure by this time you’re wondering where I’m actually from if I’m not Finlipino or Chinese.

Well, if you didn’t know my name is Choezin and I am Tibetan. By any chance does anyone know anything about Tibetans? Well, if you don’t that is completely fine, since it’s not exactly common to meet a Tibetan person. To give you a brief summary Tibetans are from a vast mountain filled land that shares Mt Everest with Nepal. This allowed it to gain the name of being “The roof of the world”. However, during the 1950’s China invaded Tibet and took occupation over the land (and Tibet fell victim to China’s Cultural Revolution during the 69’s and 70’s. During this time China aimed to destroy the culture, religion and history of Tibet which resulted in the destruction of thousands of religious institutions, millions of ancient manuscripts being burnt, and hundreds of thousands of tibetans being killed.).

Despite this, some Tibetans were able to escape from China and reside in countries that welcomed them such as India and Nepal, allowing Tibetans to remain as a separate entity from China and continue to maintain their culture. Of course I don’t want to stand here this whole time and give you a history lesson. I want to talk about me and how being Tibetan has affected me. So, like many of you, my parents were always encouraging me to do well in school and get good grades of course for the sake of ensuring a good future, but for me it was mainly to allow our country to become more known and be able to make a difference in the current issues surrounding the occupation of Tibet. Without questioning anything or opposing against my parents I obediently listened to them, and did as they said.

There was no doubt in my mind and it just became an obvious and unconscious thing for me to follow and do something for my country. I remember it was until one day, when I was in elementary school and we were going around in a circle while sharing things in order to introduce ourselves. When it came to my turn I confidently told them “My name is Choezin and I’m Tibetan.” But I was met in response with confused and blank faces staring back at me. I think it was around this time that I started feeling ashamed of who I was and where I was from. It created a feeling of otherness in me, a feeling of being different.

We often take hold of our differences and begin to live by it in order to tell ourselves that we don’t belong, we don’t fit in, we shouldn’t be part of something. When I did this I was reducing my own capabilities and opportunities while lowering my resilience and ability to try new things and have confidence. When I was faced with obstacles it felt much larger and scarier leading me to become fearful. Fear is an emotion that will usher in when something that we care about is at risk.

For me, I cared about belonging, I cared about being able to look around see people who I could relate to and feel connected to. But being from such a small country made it difficult since I never saw any representation of Tibetans anywhere in the world or anywhere around me. I was so desperate to belong that I even thought it would be better for them to have a misconception of me and think I’m part of something bigger than learning about where I’m actually from and knowing that I’m different. I always blamed my feelings of isolation on me being born different from my ethnicity to any other insecurity I could find on myself. When in reality I was just using these things as an excuse to fuel my need to be part of something bigger in society, and to fit in with the people around me. I was always trying to fit in, to blend in, to belong.

So as soon as I found anything that made me different from the rest, I made that the centre of my attention and tried to avoid it at all costs. I was so focused on what makes me so different from everyone else, that I began to forget all the things that made me similar to so many more people.