Hello! I’m Mei (阳春菊), a Chinese adoptee from YangChun in Guangdong province. I grew up in a small town in rural Pennsylvania, where I was able to count the number of other Asian students on my fingers. I was almost always the only Asian student in class, and, sometimes, even the only person of color. It was extremely isolating because I always longed to connect with other Asian American people but lacked the opportunities to do so. At the same time, I always worried that being adopted into a white family would make me “less Asian,” I and was deeply insecure about sharing my transracial adoption experiences. I strived to fit in with other Asian American people in superficial ways.

After finding community in my college’s Asian American Student Union, and later co-creating Adoptee Alliance on campus, I have become more comfortable in my skin. I learned to hold space for my unique experience and perspectives, as these experiences and perspectives are what have defined me. Though it is still difficult to accept that I will always exist between two worlds, I know that I can be authentically Asian, American and Asian American as a transracial adoptee.