This is one of those questions that I frequently get from people... even people who have known me for years often ask or get confused. I had a similar experience this weekend at our former church, CEFC's Youth Camp. Jesse had the pleasure of serving as the speaker for this weekend in the mountains. Well, a Filipino church group was also sharing the grounds of the camp with us. Rick, a youth minister at CEFC (and a proud Filipino) who has known me for a good 7-8 years came up to me and started talking about the other group. It went something like this...
Rick: Hey, they're your people too.
Me: Ah, no they're not. I'm not Filipino!
Rick: What? Yes you are!
Me: No, I'm not!
Rick: Half? Quarter?!
Me: (laughing) No! I'm not Filipino. I only lived there for 3 years but I'm not Filipino.
Rick: Really? Oh, I thought for sure you were Filipino.
Haha, yeah I got that a lot when I was in the Philippines, too! Then, a couple of weeks ago a good friend of mine told me that she sometimes forgets that I'm NOT Chinese. She just thinks of me as Chinese. I thanked her saying, That's good! That means I have finally made it to "the inside". So, to set the record straight... I'm half Japanese, one quarter Irish, one eighth Swedish and one eighth Finnish but very Americanized! However, that's just my heritage and not who I am. Most of all, I am a child of God and that's really what matters most to me. :)
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5 comments:
I always think of you as part Chinese too. But I've never thought of you as part Filipino! =)
Amen, sista!
I get that question a lot too. Native American? Thai? Malaysian? Vietnamese? Filipino? Hawaiian?
Funny since I knew you about half the time Rick does and I could tell you were NOT Filipino (I originally thought you were a mix of Japanese and Caucasian).
But then again, I did ask you about your ethnicity during small group a couple years ago....=)
I can't believe Rick thought you were Filipino after all this time! Though I always saw you as one of us, even though you are technically part Japanese and Caucasian :)
I usually get Filipino, part Asian of some sort, or Hispanic. Hawaiian is somewhat new, since I want to Hawaii for the first time earlier this year and everyone thought I was local.
Haha I get the same thing. Remember when Michael told those tourists he was Turkish? That was a long time ago. They believed him too. K thought I was Italian when we first met. He thought we would definitely have something in common then. :) Little did he know...
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