If You Want the Rainbow Anonymous

It seemed as if it was just yesterday when I anxiously fidgeted around in the airplane seat, awaiting unexpected surprises in my new home. This, however, was ten years ago when I emigrated from China to the United States. My parents had warned me that it would be a drastic change; but when one is at the naïve age of six, change hardly means more than a brand new place to play in. Leaving behind years of comfort and memories, I found myself arriving in not only a new location but adapting to a new lifestyle as well.

At first, America turned out to be quite different than I had imagined it to be, mainly because of my language barrier. While other children enjoyed their carefree years in elementary school, I dreaded science and history classes since the new English terms were unfamiliar to me. Every night my parents and I would decrypt both these lectures and homework assignments in hopes of helping me catch up to the other students. I distinctly remember one afternoon when I had gotten an assignment from third grade English class; the instructions were to create a sentence using the word “green.” Although the task was simple, it caused distress among my parents and me.

With time, the handicap that forced me to hurdle many...