Empowerly

Student profile

Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story. 

I remind myself of a Spam Musubi, an iconic Hawaiian snack made of sticky rice topped with a slice of Spam and wrapped with seaweed. It is an inexpensive, portable, satisfying staple, and is found everywhere on the Hawaiian Islands. The Musubi effortlessly integrates the multiple social and ethnic influences that make up Hawaiian life through its layers of ingredients from Asia, America and Hawaii.

Like the Musubi, I represent a mix of cultures. I was born in India. I grew up in Singapore and Hawaii. Like the Musubi, I strive to balance the diverse influences that flavor my existence. My father is from North India and my mother is South Indian. They have different mother tongues, cuisines, clothing, and festivals. My family moved to Singapore when I was three months old. When I was nine, we moved to Hawaii. I have lived exactly half my life so far in Singapore and the other half in Hawaii- two islands, but two vastly different cultures.

In India and Singapore, the question kids get asked a lot is: “Do you get good grades?” That's what we called the ‘Asian Question' at home. When I got to America, the question I often got was: “What sport do you play?” My parents, being products of a culture that prized education above all else, did not care about sport. I learned to swim and had PE at school, and as far as they were concerned that was enough. But every time I was asked the “American Question” I felt foreign. I navigated that path on my own, trying to balance the domestic pressure to do well at school, with the social pressure to play sport. I worked my way to a second-degree black belt in Taekwando and am in Varsity Judo at school. I tried swim-team and water polo before settling on outrigger canoe paddling as my water sport.

Looking back, I realize I have always struggled to reconcile opposing impulses: South Indian and North Indian, Indian and American, local and outsider, athlete and academic. In the Spam Musubi I see both the epitome of my struggle, and its resolution. The Musubi is made with ingredients that are unremarkable on their own, and seem almost impossible to reconcile. But reconcile they do, and together create something delicious and unique. India is my rice, Singapore and Hawaii my seaweed cloak, and the Spam at my core is that unique blend of my varied lived experience that informs every thought I have and every word I write.

From crowded, vibrant India I get my sense of family, and an appreciation of diversity; from tiny, prosperous Singapore I take aspiration, and a desire to punch above my weight. Hawaii has taught me Aloha, a sense of community, and the importance of sharing and caring. Together they have given me empathy, which drives my work as a Peer Mediation Counselor at school, and as a volunteer at the Humane Society. Traversing cultures and schools has also taught me to adapt, to be open to new experiences and learning new skills, qualities I know will benefit me greatly in college and beyond.

Today, as I reflect on leaving another place I call home for college, the struggles to belong and fit-in seem more like stepping-stones rather than hurdles. I appreciate the many places I have lived and the many gifts they have bestowed upon me, each gift a layer of the Spam Musubi that I am.