My item is my Buddha pendant that I got from my father, which he got from a temple in Burma. This object represents my family’s identity simply just because I was raised as a Buddhist from a family who was all raised on the belief of Buddhism. This object represents faith and hope, something that my family held onto when they moved away from Thailand. My entire family emigrated from Thailand and all settled in the United States in the late 1980s and early 1990s. In all honesty, I don’t think my family’s story is unique. I do think it’s inspirational, it’s inspirational because my oldest aunt and my grandmother came to the United States first. My grandma trying her best to get a job with little education and little knowledge of the language of English, along with my aunt trying to figure out how to get the rest of her 11 siblings to come live on this land with her and my grandmother. My father is an Amerasian, got adopted by a wealthy white man in Thailand. He ended up moving to Guam then later moving to the United States in the mid 1990s with the help of his adopted father. My family’s story is connected to other family stories I’m familiar with because they’re all leaving a country they’re familiar with to go live in a foreign country to relearn everything, just to live a better life for them and their family. 

– Tsrithong

Relationship:  Child of im/migrant Child of im/migrant