Zoé Duffield - Class of 2017
I was born in Cambodia, but I don't remember anything. Not my parents, not the orphanage, not the beautiful capital city--nothing. My adoptive parents brought me here when I was five months old, and have raised me as an American ever since. I grew up on American food, listened to American music, and immersed myself into the American way of life in every way possible. I know that things could've turned out differently, and am very grateful that they haven't. Yet I can't help but feel a little sad that my blank memories of Cambodia have kept me from truly identifying with my home country. I'm proud of my ethnic background, but it's hard to make any real connection when I don't recall any of it. As a kid I wanted nothing more than to blend in with all the other blue-eyed children around me, but now when people ask me about my birth place, it hurts to answer “I don't know”. It's not necessarily that I want to find my biological parents, or even any biological family at all, but I do wish to become more acquainted with Cambodia. It has a wild and unique history as well as a population of diverse individuals, and I hope that one day I can go back for a while to catch up a bit with what I've missed.
