Sharing and enjoying my Asian-American culture while at Yale

By Trang La

When asked to define my freshman experience at Yale in terms of my identity as an Asian American, I had a difficult time. It never occurred to me to evaluate my first year here solely in that light. At home most of my friends were Vietnamese but I never considered our common heritage to be the link that held our friendships together. When I got to Yale, I was just another face in the crowd: some were Asian, most weren't. This becam even clearer when I got to know my floormates and realized that we were all extremely different. We all came from diverse backgrounds, races, and religions, yet faced many of the same issues. Ultimately, this made for a very powerful experience.

The most valuable thing I took away from this shared experience was the opportunity to view myself from a different perspective, in a previously foreign way. I had always been surrounded by people similar to me and was faced with the task of representing myself--including my ethnicity--to people who had no understanding of it. At the same time, I wanted to establish a connection with the Yale Vietnamese community. This was a balance I had never needed to consider before.

Throughout the year, as I became closer with my floormates, it became easier to merge my two worlds. While I got the chance to meet many international students, attend choral and orchestral concerts, and attend events of other ethnic groups, I introduced my friends to my organization, ViSA, the Vietnamese Student Association. They attended all the events we hosted, and while I sometimes forced them to eat "odd" Vietnamese dishes, it brought us closer together in the end. I was able to give them a better understanding of myself, without limiting my freshman experience to just one facet of my personality.

Asian Americans at Yale have at their disposal an intricate support system--the level to which you choose to involve yourself is entirely up to you. While I am a part of ViSA and treasure the friendships I have made there, I have also explored other avenues. Nonetheless, ViSA has and will continue to enrich the friendships that I make at Yale. Back to the Freshman Issue...