Growing up Asian is hard

    Whenever someone hears the word "Asian", they think it is the "golden race" ("golden race" is something I heard about Asians when I was in high school). They think that an Asian person is good in school, has straight A's, plays the piano, speaks an Asian language, and may have more stereotypical assumptions. However, people only see the "greatness" of the Asian race but don't consider what Asian people have to go through. Asian people even get emotionally, physically, and mentally affected when they have to meet the standards of an average Asian person. 

    I've said it multiple times on this blog by now but growing up I didn't have good grades. Going to school was always a struggle for me. I had talents in athletics but that wasn't something that Asian parents want or the stereotypical Asian person should do. My parents wanted me to go and get good grades. However, at the time in elementary school, while I struggled in school, I wasn't able to meet those expectations. I would always be given punishments, shame, and disappointment by my parents. Though, how was I supposed to get good grades when I was designed for and born with talent in athletics? The looked of disappointment and punishment became one of the multiple reasons for me to start improving my grades. Eventually, I did get the straight A's that my parents wanted. When I finally showed them I have gotten all straight A's, I just had a neutral face. I saw that getting straight A's wasn't an accomplishment but a baseline standard for every Asian kid going to school. I had essentially worked so hard to just get no celebration or recognition of my accomplishments. 

    Another stereotype of Asian people is that they know how to play piano. When I was in 6th grade, my parents bought a Yamaha keyboard for all of the children to practice and play piano. I even went every weekend on Sunday to piano classes at a store called "Hix Bro Music". At first, I was quite excited to play piano. I thought of all the songs I could play on the piano and the ways that I could impress my friends. However, after like a year, I just found the piano to be so gruesome, boring, and frustrating. Learning a piano piece took lots of time and practice. I eventually found myself not enjoying piano at all. What made it worse is that I had to practice classical piano pieces. I didn't even get to play the amazing songs from Anime and pop culture. Piano ended up being something that my parents would force me to do. I had zero passion, motivation, and inspiration to even play the piano.  

  Understandably, whenever someone thinks about an Asian, they think of a person who is smart in academics and music. Think that Asian people are incredible and outperform anyone in any job. Even some colleges don't even want Asians because they already have too many of them. Though, behind all of these recognitions, people aren't able to see the amount of struggle and hard work that is put in to meet these high standards. I want people to know that Asians aren't some glorified race of the elites. I want Asian parents to look at their kids and nurture the talents that they have. I want those Asian parents to also know that not every single Asian kid is capable of getting straight A's. They need to have the determination, motivation, and incentive to go out to get these outstanding grades. And please, congratulate your kid if he works hard to get straight A's.