Background Anonymous

My first seven years were like night and day compared with the next ten. As the youngest in my extended family of cousins, aunts, and uncles, I was the center of attention, and my life felt as routine as clockwork. But that was all about to change.

Moving to the States when I was seven, I did not speak any English. Until then I had never been more than 100 miles from my hometown in China, which made this country all the more foreign. I started school in second grade and was soon caught in a dilemma. The language was a major stumbling block, but I had developed a certain introversion from being coddled all these years. The shock of anonymity made soliciting help difficult.

In my father's quest for a medical license, our family has moved constantly to wherever his residency or training was. In ten years, we've had six homes; sometimes it was just a move to the other side of town, others it was thousands of miles across the country. Almost every move entailed a new school, which meant a new circle of friends, teachers, and academic expectations. In stark contrast to my life in China, I was always the new kid, on the outside looking in. It felt like walking into private parties uninvited, as if I were some kind of...