I grew up as a mixed child with a Caucasian dad and a mom who moved from the Philippines when she was younger. While going to a predominantly white elementary school, I rarely talked about my Filipino culture with friends because I wanted to fit into what I thought was “normal”. I remember telling someone a story about my ninang and then feeling both surprised and embarrassed because I hadn't before realized that most people didn’t know what that meant. My ninang was my aunt, but I never thought of her as the word “aunt”. Regardless, I made sure to start referring to her as my aunt when she came up in conversation, but that felt weird to me too. Growing up I felt conflicted while trying to connect with my peers and both sides of my family. One year when we were celebrating Christmas with my Filipino family, my mom had the idea of bringing the game Guesstures (a version of charades) for us all to play. As a child, playing games felt like something both sides of my family had in common, and it was an easy way to connect. Even though I didn’t speak Tagalog, me and my relatives bonded over the silliness and competition of Guesstures as well as other games they would teach me. Ever since that one year, it has been a family tradition that we’ve all had a lot of fun with.

– Sydney Tabbert

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