"As a first-gen Indian living in a predominantly white suburb of metro-Detroit, I, like many with the same story as me, tried so hard to push away my Indian heritage in order to fit in with a type of people that were so far away from who I was. I stopped wearing a bindi to school, I took my hair out of the braids that my mother so painstakingly did for me every morning, I never took Indian food to school. I made being ‘brown’ a small part of my identity, a part I only took up on weekends and after school. My parents had lived in America longer than they had lived in India, they were not the ‘fresh-off-the-boat’ Indians so many sitcoms display. I lived a normal life, yet I tried so hard to hide my heritage. I remember once being strangely happy when someone told me “Pooja, I always forget you’re Indian because you’re so different”.

I ended up going to a predominantly brown (South and East Asian) school where almost the entire senior class was first-generation, either from Asia or Europe. Being in this environment was not something I chose (my parents enrolled me into this higher intensity school), but looking back, I am so grateful my parents forced me into that decision 4 years ago. Because, after four years, I now love going out in my Indian clothes. I do henna for my friends. I eat Indian food everywhere I can, and I introduce my friends to Indian food. In fact, many of my friends are first gen now too. And I love it. And now, more than ever, being Indian does not define me. Before, it defined the person I hid, but now it complements the other aspects of myself. I’m bold, curious, witty, opinionated — and Indian. Looking back, it is tragic to think that so many generations of south Indians had honed this beautiful culture, and there I was, being ashamed of something that was hundreds of years in the making. I will keep making amends to my culture for the rest of my life in the only way I know how to now: by living in it so completely without shame."