Growing Up Hapa
Image courtesy of pinterest Okay, I know the term "hapa" was not originally meant to be a positive term, but it honestly doesn't bother me. I never thought that growing up as half Japanese and half White would be a plus until I was older. Growing up I was surrounded by kids who were "whole". They were White, Black, Hispanic, you name it, but very rarely did I encounter anyone who was mixed. As a child, I remember being asked, "What are you?" and being told, "You're weird." That had a profound affect on how I identified, and did a number on my self-esteem. I was never a "whole" anything, and I so desperately wanted to be like everyone else. My bestest-best friend is also mixed, but she moved away when we were still in grade school. It also didn't help that my White side was far less accepting of my being mixed than my Japanese side (I've always felt more connected to them)...not all of my White relatives, b...