I’m Asian – And I’m a Social Media Geek
Much ridicule, debate and anger has been made about Amy Chua and the book she wrote earlier that was a reflection of her parenting experience, but expanded upon has led to an entire debate on the role of the Asian American in school, the workforce and the issues beyond the exams in college.
I went to a very high achieving high school, one where over ten percent of my graduating class ended up going to UC Berkeley. Taking two AP classes was almost considered procrastination and many friends went home to their parents fearing repercussions from coming home with anything less than an A-minus. Friends spent weekends taking classes for the SAT, attending speech and debate tournaments and stayed up to study until the wee hours of the morning on topics they could care less about but needed the grade so much for.
I spent much of my time at that school in the top 25% of my class but if you felt the pulse of academics at that school, you would have thought I was in the bottom 25%. As an Asian, you weren’t just expected to be great at math, you were supposed to understand Calculus by the time you got out of your second year, be looking at an advanced college course by the time you began your senior year and grab A’s in almost every class. Not being able to do so didn’t ostracize you but was looked upon as not fitting in to your ethnic class. Even then too, you could see who cared and who was passionate about the work they did – the people who didn’t somehow got A’s anyway.
I came out of high school thinking I would follow every other professional field that every other Asian was going to do – for pretty much everyone, the major of their choice fell into two or three categories – business, accounting, engineering and for the select few, a fourth – biological sciences. It seemed as if your path was anything different – English, theater or something else you were either never heard from or people thought you were downright weird. Such are the pitfalls and culture of a neighborhood that seemed so sheltered.
The first year of college I found myself in accounting – my major, or at least what I thought would be. After a few weeks, I found myself dreading what I was doing. Granted, it was numbers and I loved numbers but I couldn’t see myself budgeting, debiting and crediting for the rest of my life. I had talked about going into accounting prior as if I was passionate and cared, and people up until my senior year still asked, “are you still doing accounting?” and had me answer…
“No, I’m actually thinking of going into social media for my career…”
Its here where I’d like to state that my career is just that – social media geek. Rather, I’m Asian, and I’m a social media geek. Away from the hours and hours that Amy Chua describes of playing the piano until boredom, staying up until the wee hours like many of my peers I found myself immersed in the great things of understanding Twitter, managing a Facebook Page, looking at how businesses are affected by social media, among many other things and doing consulting. The closest I ever get to accounting is figuring out how much money I’m getting per client, and not even that. The closest I get to engineering, is, well, when I’m creating good relationships and bringing people together on social media.
If you’re Asian, or any person part of the perceived “model minority”, take a look at yourself, especially if you’re that social media geek. Embrace it, love it, tackle it, and be proud of where you are. You’re doing great things – enjoy it. Amy Chua may have raised her kids one way and everyone else in your world might be doing engineering, accounting or some biomedical field but you’re following your passions. As they say, if you love what you do you will never work a day in your life. Follow that dream, and follow that passion – while your forefathers and ancestors may have hoped that you do what they do, the world is so much more than that.
Share your thoughts and experiences below, or tweet at me to let me know what you think. I want to hear about your social media story.
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