The first thing I did after immigrating to the United States in 1988 at 16 was hide my identity. Being from Lebanon felt shameful, partly due to the ongoing civil war there at the time and the negative stereotypes influenced by political tensions in the region.
Cognisant of these issues, my dad, who had abandoned my mum and me in Lebanon when I was three years old to start a new life in Detroit, insisted I assimilate as quickly as possible once I joined him.
His motives seemed valid. He wanted to protect me from being bullied or discriminated against in high school. He also did not believe in living with a hyphenated identity.
Eager to please him and tired of hearing him ask why it was taking me so long to learn English, I began to transform into an all-American teenager. In the process, I didn’t just assimilate; I erased myself.
It took three decades and a midnight call from thousands of miles away to change all of that.
English (US)