Bounded

Growing up with strict yet loving Asian immigrant parents, I often felt like I was in an awkward space of independence as a teenager. There is at once so much at stake–sacrifices to make worth it, unspoken dreams to fulfill, and space that feels like I'll never be big enough to fill–yet also so few right ways to do it, so little time to mature and so little space to grow.

It’s as if we are blank dolls, one-sided and shallow with our intentions. What adults often ignore about teenagers is the impact of these assumptions on our lives. We are all at once naive little children who cannot possibly step into the shoes of adults and take action in the world and at the same time brats who need to understand that we are dealing with the real world and its consequences. This is especially evident in people of color: activists are viewed as aggressive and ignorant instead of progressive, teenagers are disproportionately arrested or hate-crimed, and depending on what race they are, teenagers are either overachievers or absolute failures. Nothing ever feels like enough, and we end up trapped in that awkward, too-small-but-too-big-space created by expectations.