Final Draft

                                                                  What Are You?

Growing up, I was always asked the question, “What are you?” What am I you ask? Good question I thought to myself. What exactly was I? I am a Asian-American but what does it mean to be an Asian-American and is this what defines who I am? I never knew what it was like to be an authentic Asian person. I knew what it was like to be American but to answer this question everyone continually asked me, with this would not suffice as an answer. My mother was half Chinese and also knew nothing about her heritage and my father was full Chinese but died when I was a young age so he was never able to teach me the intricacies of my cultural background. I was lost. When I told people I was Chinese the following question was always if I spoke the language. I was always really embarrassed to answer this question with a “no.” I wanted to know about my culture but I did not have any resources to learn about them. This posed a problem to me. How do I define who I am if I cannot learn about my ethnic background? I could do research about it, but then again I was only 10 years old or so. This was not a high enough priority for me to do something so extensive. This was the point I decided I wanted to define myself through my accomplishments and not by my cultural background (not that I really had a choice).

            I was around eight-years old when I started to realized my interest in science and math. In my third grade class, we started doing our times tables. Every week we would learn a new number. There were always contests on who could learn the next number the fastest. I was a very competitive individual. Every week I was always one of the first kids that volunteered to take the next number test and always passed it on the first time. Then, on the very last test, the teacher randomly volunteered me to take the test first, and a day early at that. I had no preparation and I was very nervous. I didn't know how I would pass something I never studied for but I passed it. I was the first one to get all of my times tables stickers put on the board. Can you believe the excitement I had? No? Well, it was lots. This was the moment I knew that math would be one of my favorite subjects and that I could excel at it. It was as something as little as learning my times tables that enabled to me express my interest in a subject most students hate. All I needed was some encouragement that allowed me to posses the motivation into applying myself to one of the more difficult subjects and before I knew it, I was starting to become a stereotypical Asian kid. I was really good at math... and I was Asian. Coincidence? I still don't know till this day. All I know is this was just the first link that enabled me to relate back to my culture even though I knew nothing about it. This wasn't the only stereotype I fell under when it came to Asian kids and their academics though.

George St. Pierre generating 2,859 lbs of force in one punch. Awesome.

            Some years later, I discovered how interesting science was. I was watching a T.V. show called "Sports Science" and it amplified how amazing the human body worked. It displayed how the muscles and bones worked as a perfect machine enabling humans to move in extraordinary ways. It was fascinating to me. All of these reactions and mechanisms were occurring in my body every second of the day and I never thought twice about it. This particular episode displayed one of my favorite fighters in mixed martial arts. It displayed his uncanny ability to generate a great deal of power in a single punch. They also displayed the quickness and reaction time this man had. It was unreal. This man was at such a high level as an athlete that he was able to block and weave strikes from his opponent like no other. After watching this episode, I just had to learn more about the human body. I took an anatomy class in high school and always wrote papers about the physiology of it. It was one of the deciding factors the actually helped me choose my pre-medicine major here at Ohio University. To this day, I am still in awe about the processes that occur inside us every day and the ones that we are still unaware of. At this point, we have displayed my love for math and science and also how I aspire to be a doctor one day. I started to follow the Asian stereotypes even more. Asian men are very abundant in the medical field and it is a well known fact. There are even jokes about how Asian kids have to become doctors. This is a skit from one of my favorite shows that my friends always use to make fun of me. All in good sport of course.

     When I realized I was a big nerd and that I loved math and science, I decided that if I ever wanted to become something in the medical field I had to work hard in my studies and I did just that. Throughout middle school, high school, and even college, I have never received a C or lower. I graduated high school with a 4.0 grade point average (on a weighted G.P.A. scale) and was a member of the national honors society. I was also picked to be a part of a senior project pilot group where a committee of teachers picked five students to participate in internships in places they were interested in as a career and presenting what they had done to the board of education. In college, I am a member of multiple pre-medicine groups, work in two research labs, am a learning community leader, a tutor, and am apparently amongst the top 35% of my class based on an email I received the other day. Now, based just on my academics, I was able to answer the question “What are you?” with things along the line as a nerd. Not a nerd in a bad way though (even though “nerd” has a relatively bad stigma). I am the type of nerd that is strives to do well in academics and is willing to put forth the work necessary to do so and I am proud to be a nerd. I became a stereotypical Asian nerd and I wouldn't have it any other way. Even though I knew nothing about my ethnic background I seemed to be pulled back into the traditions some how. Whether it be genetics or a coincidence, I seem to be following a set path; at least on the academic side of me.

When I did my senior project, I did my internship with a few orthopedic surgeons. This was me holding a humeral head when someone was getting a total shoulder replacement done. I'm pointing to the x-ray of that said person before their surgery.

Going back to my childhood, I was one of the most competitive kids among my friends. My love for competition is what made me love sports so much. I always wanted to be better than my friend or the kid down the block and would practice something until I was. When I was in seventh grade, my best friend was probably just as competitive as I was. We were playing a kickball game or something like that in gym class and my team was doing really well. I did the usual friendly smack-talking to the other team as our team won the game pretty convincingly. My friend, whom was on the other team, did not take this trash-talking too kindly. We ended up getting into a fight during gym class and again when we got to the locker room. We were suspended for three days. Then, when we came back from our suspensions we got into another fight where he hit me with a watch wrapped around his hand and I slammed his head into a locker. I lost a friend over my competitiveness and I don't think I knew how to control my emotions that well. After this event occurred  my mother decided that I should probably learn to channel some of my competitiveness and this was when I joined martial arts. 

          Martial arts was/is my absolute favorite sport to participate in. To be a martial artists was much more than learning how to defend yourself. It is important to note that learning karate is not just a physical endeavor. This is just what our culture portrays it as. Gichin Funakoshi sums up the philosophy of karate well. He believed that to practice martial arts is to purge oneself of selfish and evil thoughts. For only with a clear mind and conscience can the practitioner understand the knowledge which he receives. He believed how one should be, "inwardly humble and outwardly gentle." Only by behaving humbly can one be open to karate's many lessons. This is done by listening and being receptive to criticism. He considered courtesy of prime importance. He said that "Karate is properly applied only in those rare situations in which one really must either down another or be downed by him." Funakoshi did not consider it unusual for a devotee to use Karate in a real physical confrontation no more than perhaps once in a lifetime. He stated that Karate practitioners must "never be easily drawn into a fight." It is understood that one blow from a real expert could mean death. It is clear that those who misuse what they have learned bring dishonor upon themselves. He promoted the character trait of personal conviction. In "time of grave public crisis, one must have the courage ... to face a million and one opponents." He taught that indecisiveness is a weakness.

When practicing marital arts I was also able to learn vulnerable parts on the human body. It was just like a generic anatomy class where you learn to strike different parts of what you are learning. My sensei's teachings of anatomy of the human body were an inspiration to learn more about it. Jerald Sharp states how, “Martial arts, especially those from Asia, also teach side disciplines which pertain to medicinal practices.” It was another influence that helped me deiced my major here at Ohio University and it allowed me to get an alternative view of how to look at anatomy. My initial exposure to anatomy was on how to harm and disable someone and now I seek to learn how to help or repair those that are in pain or discomfort. I practiced this for four entire years. Again, no matter what I did, my Asian heritage seemed to sneak up on me. Now I was an Asian kid that was good at math, did karate, and wanted to become a doctor one day. Sounds familiar right? It sounds just like all the stereotypes out there about Asian men.

Me, on the right, kicking someone in the head at a tournament.

          The next sport I participated in was wrestling my sophomore year to my senior year in high school. Wrestling was not what I was used to. You were constantly on the ground fighting opposed to karate where you were only standing up. It was definitely a new concept for me to understand. I went from winning karate tournaments to getting my butt handed to me in wresting tournaments. It was interesting though because it was a new challenge that I was not used to. My sophomore and junior years in wrestling were pretty rough but by the time senior year came rolling around, I started to get the hang of it. I started placing in tournaments and even became the captain of my wrestling team. After the season, I got nominated to wrestle in the county wrestling all-star matches and was the only person from my school that ended their wrestling career with a win. My wrestling team and my karate school taught me the concept of teamwork. Even though you competed individually, your team could only win if every member of your team was doing well. There is no type of practice like wrestling practice and any wrestler will tell you the same. To endure something so physically draining with a group of peers gives you a certain bond and allows you to relate to that person no matter who they are. We had individuals from our wrestling team from every area of the social groups in the high school but even though you were different, you were both suffering and had to help each other get through the practice. This taught me to not judge people on their appearances.  Wrestling and karate allowed me to become a more well rounded martial artists and they taught me many important details of my life.

            After doing both karate and wrestling I became a more confident individual. Besides the fact that I was able to fight decently well, it gave me the courage to fight through adversity. There is nothing like competing in a close karate or wrestling match where you control your own destiny. It is something you have to experience and learn for yourself. I was able to learn from these experiences and am now able to call myself a mixed martial artist.

            After discovering two of the more important sports in my life, I was able to define myself as an individual even more; as an athlete. Just as Allison Torres in "At Home in My Body: An Asian-American Athlete Searches for Self" states, "Being an athlete is now my single most defining identity. Not everyone has to be aware of it, just as not everyone has to aware that I'm half Filipino...I chose this community. It was the first time the decision was completely my own."(223). Unlike Torres, I do not only define myself as an athlete, but I believe her quotes sums up a lot of what I am saying. Through these sports and academics, I was able to define myself and it doesn't matter what ethnicity I am. So after accomplishing and enduring all of these different activities throughout my life, I was no longer worried about not knowing much about my ethnic background. I became a stereotypical Asian without knowing the history and I was proud of it. Whether it be genetics, destiny, or a coincidence, I was not restrained to behave in a certain way just because of a particular cultural background. I lived my life with no bias affecting my decisions and I grew up to become exactly who I wanted to be (at least so far). I may still be a stereotypical Asian but not because I had cultural pressures persuading me to do so. I did it purely on my own decisions and I feel like there is no better way to find who you are then by building your own path because, after all, nobody is more you than you.

Works Cited
Funakoshi, Gichin. Karate-do Kyohan - The Master Text. Tokyo, Kodansha International. 1973. Web.

Torres, Allison. Body Outlaws, At Home in My Body: An Asian-American Athlete Searches for Self. 219-224. Print.

Sharp, Jerald. Internal Kung Fu Electronic.