This is still a hard one to answer! I had never thought about this prior to coming to America. Having spent the first 17 years of my life in Asia, being ‘Asian’ wasn’t one of my main identifiers – not something you think about when being surrounded by Asians. But here in the U.S, I realized that people saw me first as Asian and that really shifted my perspective of myself. I realized that people held certain assumptions about me and biases against me as well. It’s still difficult for me to fully answer what it means to be Asian, but here are a few things that define that for me: It means upholding cultural and family traditions, being respectful to my elders, showing love through everyday actions like cutting fruit or preparing comforting meals for others, working hard and being driven, making sacrifices for family, obsessing over food, having awesome hair, taking pride in my appearance, owning the ‘Asian squat’, looking younger than most my age, feeling super proud of my rich cultural heritage and ethnicity, learning to be OK with being a bit selfish sometimes, learning to deal with conflict, learning to stand up for myself and others, being resilient and facing struggles head on.