Personal Essay About My American Culture

Today, do I eat a hamburger with french fries,or biryani with goat kabobs? Not the typical decision for the average American teenager! However, my life has been confronted with lifestyle choices ever since I was born. In 1999, a married Pakistani couple consisting of a lady doctor and an engineer emigrated to America , carrying a six-month-old baby girl… me. Fifteen months later, my younger sister joined her two older sisters “arm and arm” to experience a duel Pakistani/American upbringing. Learning two languages with contrasting cultures and values, we were compelled to mature much more rapidly than our neighbors and classmates. Unfortunately, we did not have the advantage of close relatives to navigate the challenges that we faced. However, the experiences we had …show more content…
Surprisingly, the compliments from and the conversations with onlookers proved to be very positive, and I overcame any feeling of being peculiar or incompatible. This situation broke the closed mindedness I had and allowed me to embrace my background making it a part of me .Fellow pupils and teachers accepted me for my individuality. Likewise, I accepted them more and more with their American culture each day. Presently, I have become practically “Americanized.” Although my family and I converse in Urdu with our relatives, observe holidays, visit Pakistan bi-annually, eat traditional “desi” food, for the most part, I relate to being a typical American teenager and live a “normal” student life.The advantages of a bicultural lifestyle are fluency in two languages, international travel, a divergent perspective of the world, and an appreciation of multifarious traditions. In addition, I have the counsel and wisdom of my grandparents, parents, relatives, and friends from across the globe. I am grateful to be a part of two interesting cultures- I am a little Pakistani inside a