Kaleidoscope Anonymous

Life mimics the complicated pattern of a kaleidoscope, a beautiful disarray of mismatched colors and shapes dancing in harmony. Each angle, each color, each piece is the careful product of our decisions and actions. Yet however permanent they may seem, they are constantly shifting and shuffling, just as we are changing and growing. From an extremely early age, I realized that the polished lens of my scope revealed not the brilliant pattern that seemed to imprint itself onto every bright-eyed child, but something much duller and far less whole. I found myself constantly staring at the jagged fissure in my glass and eyeing the blue and red hues that seemed to gloss over each side, tarnishing each fragment. American culture with its bright blue skies and freedom to think, to choose, and to live contrasts the fiery red of the Chinese, characterized by their stubborn determination and conservatism. These two cultures with vastly different values and ideals clash regularly and violently, causing the schism between them to widen further as I struggle harder to locate even ground.

My Asian family, whose main emphasis is upon the development of good character seems to coincide with that of Western values, yet conflict occurs when “good...