When the girls left to go downtown, I started thinking
about the time I spent as a child in France. Had I been as
embarrassed because I was different and for celebrating
different holidays in addition to the French ones? Probably
yes. Is it only with age that you realize that being different is
not as bad as you thought? Eventually you see that you can
stand out and actually take advantage of that fact, not in a
negative way, of course, but putting your uniqueness to a
good cause.
Just think about it. Aren’t we all human in the end? Who
told us that we have to speak this certain language and
behave a certain way? Aren’t those all manmade boundaries?
Of course, all the while we’re trying to teach our kids to
think outside the box. Something about the entire picture
bothers me. Instead of embracing the differences, we point
them out and create confusion by saying be different but not
different like that.my brother, Sam, and I were didn’t feel like outsiders in the
family or among our friends. Did it work? Not really. Don’t
laugh but I thought of myself as a tulip. Tulips were
originally from the Middle East but were brought to the
Netherlands, but now everyone thinks of tulips as Dutch.
Now imagine you take a tulip and bring it to Spain. After the
first year, you probably wouldn’t see any difference in it, but
as time passes, the tulip changes. Eventually someone looks
at the so-called Spanish tulips and says, “Hey, the tulips in
Spain are so different from the ones in the Netherlands.” But
they’re still tulips, which is my point. I might be from a
country, but I’ve changed throughout the years, but my blood
is the same. I’m one of those Spanish tulips.
I guess regardless of how you look at it, parents try to
teach their children two or more cultures, but it will always
be difficult—except if they have their kids associate with
others who are in the same situation. I think the issue is that
kids of a certain age don’t want to be different from the
outside world. They don’t care about traditions or culture
How was I raised? We always celebrated all events, so...