When people look at me they see my external self. I don’t always identify as African American. Usually, I explain I am a mixed individual. I am Filipino and black. Most of the traditions that I follow are from my Filipino heritage. I do speak English, but also I can understand and sort of speak filipino. My mom is Filipino. She immigrated to the States in the third grade. My mom is a wonderful and smart lady. She is taking care of my sister and I with my Dad. My Dad is also a wonderful person. He was born in the states. In Illinois. My Dad is a smart fellow, knows how to get cash and is a hard worker.My heritage is important to me and I enjoy the traditions that I get to participate in. They make me different from everyone else. I enjoy being one of many who get to enjoy different kinds of traditions or events. I feel this story can be related to many people. I don’t speak for everyone but I feel like diverse traditions make us unique and sharing those traditions can get people to ask questions and come together with those events. Aside from that, the reason why I titled the story this is because my pick is a hair accessory that I wear. I feel it keeps me tied to my roots of me being an African American. The other part is language. What I mean by language is being able to speak Tagalog and being mixed. I enjoy the fact I am mixed. I find it to be nice and makes me different.I would like to share these traditions with my future family.

– Taj

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