Personal Narrative: My Identity In The United States

My identity was created when my parents wrote my name on my birth certificate in 1998. Not knowing anything, my parents decided to walk away from the Hmong tradition of giving their descendant a Hmong name and wanted to become more Americanized for the better of my future. They came to the conclusion of calling me Billy, which have no affiliation with being Hmong at all, being the first in the family to walk down this path. Being borned in the United States as the youngest child in my family and being, with my four older siblings, the first generation of Hmong-American, allows me to have a different life than I would in Laos. Since my childhood, my culture is influenced by the experiences and opportunities that had shaped me as the person I

Paul Minnesota, USA, where I did not have to go through the things my grandmother and parents had to go through while growing up. I didn’t have it as harsh as they did, such as fleeing their homeland during the Vietnam war and transitioning to a new surrounding when coming over to the United States. Being born here, I am an american citizen and that gives me more opportunities and chances in life that that of in Laos. At an age of five I am obligated to have an education and is provided with choices of what I can become in life. When I turn 18, I get the option to choose representative to become the leaders in this country. In this country I am given the freedom of rights that makes my life more enjoyable by allowing me to be more loose and less

From this, the female’s expectation rises and as a male you got to catch up to it, not saying it can’t happen vice versa too. But our minds get caught up in what’s ‘perfect’ or what ‘beauty’ is that we can’t accept the things that are given to us. As a guy you must be fit with the six pack, you must be well groom, and you must be wealthy. But being a male in my Hmong community suppose to be a leader, a person who carries the Hmong clan name ‘100%’ which means marrying only a Hmong person. This gives me too much stress for I can’t like who I choose and is restricted to barriers. As a person, I just feel like this world need