NAT SOT: my family talking, going in and out of Arabic and English
NATALIE FAHMY: I am one of those first-generation Americans, and I can tell you firsthand, growing up first generation can be difficult. When you move to college, people ask you where you’re from, but what do they mean? Do they mean where did I grow up? Or what ethnicity am I? Just ask first generation Syracuse University student, Lenny Reynoso.
LENNY REYNOSO: “As I’ve grown up and people ask me where I’m from I can’t really say American, because I am, but I’m not. And whenever I’m in the Dominican Republic, I’m an American and I’m not Dominican.”
NATALIE FAHMY: Other first-generation Americans, like Will Franco a Latino-American, say they embrace their native culture, even if they never really got to experience it.
WILL FRANCO: “I grew up in a very dominantly white area, so that’s sort of all I really knew.”
NATALIE FAHMY: Students like Franco who grew up in predominantly white towns, often have trouble making friends who are not like themselves.
WILL FRANCO: “The private school I went to, it seemed like it would be very difficult for me to meet white students, so that’s why it seems like most of my friends are first generation.”
NATALIE FAHMY: And Reynoso agrees that it is difficult to bond with other students who are not first generation.
LENNY REYNOSO: “It’s just, there’s a difference in culture, so it’s harder to relate and harder to talk to people about stuff.”
NATALIE FAHMY: It all boils down to this: for these students, it’s an ongoing struggle to be seen as an “American” when they feel the situation calls for it, while being seen as a representative of their family heritage at other times.
But these first-generation Americans have found a way to embrace both of their cultures without any problem or fear of not being accepted.
NAT SOT: social media sounds
WILL FRANCO: “My social media portrays a good balance of my Latino and American side. Some of my social media has pictures of my family that my friends wouldn’t really know, for example I have pictures of when I went to Peru.”
NATALIE FAHMY: Will Franco says for him, social media is the great equalizer, bringing both of his words together, and Lenny Reynoso agrees.
LENNY REYNOSO: “Most of the people I’ve gotten to know on social media are accepting.”
NATALIE FAHMY: Social media is turning out to be the way many first-generation Americans are blending their dual identities into a single unified representation of who they really are – helping them be the people they really want to be.
Social media works for this because it gives students a platform to be as creative as they want and as open as they want to be. Social media is a free space for people to express themselves and show followers who they are.
Even non-first-generation Americans like Meghan Fitzpatrick are finding social media a good way to learn about new cultures.
MEGHAN FITZPATRICK: I get to expose myself to cultures and different people of different backgrounds who I normally wouldn’t meet in my everyday life.
NATALIE FAHMY: In a time where it still can be hard for people with ethnic roots to feel like they really fit in, first generation students have found social media the perfect way to reveal more about who they are – without fearing what anyone else might think or say.
I’m Natalie Fahmy
First generation Americans in the United States have had a hard time balancing two cultures and finding their place. But these days, they’re getting help fitting in from a surprising source.
I am one of those first-generation Americans, and I can tell you firsthand that growing up first generation can be difficult. When you move to college, people ask you where you’re from, but what do they mean? Do they mean where did I grow up? Or what ethnicity am I? Just ask first generation Syracuse University student, Lenny Reynoso.
“As I’ve grown up and people ask me where I’m from I can’t really say American, because I am, but I’m not. And whenever I’m in the Dominican Republic, I’m an American and I’m not Dominican,” Reynoso said.
Other first-generation Americans, like Will Franco, a Latino-American, said they embrace their native culture, even if they never really got to experience it.
“I grew up in a very dominantly white area, so that’s sort of all I really knew,” Franco said.
Students like Franco who grew up in predominantly white towns often have trouble making friends who are not like themselves.
“The private school I went to, it seemed like it would be very difficult for me to meet white students, so that’s why it seems like most of my friends are first generation,” Franco said.
Reynoso agrees that it is difficult to bond with other students who are not first generation.
“It’s just, there’s a difference in culture, so it’s harder to relate and harder to talk to people about stuff,” Reynoso said.
It all boils down to this: for these students, it’s an ongoing struggle to be seen as an “American” when they feel the situation calls for it, while being seen as a representative of their family heritage at other times.
But these first-generation Americans have found a way to embrace both of their cultures without any problem or fear of not being accepted.
“My social media portrays a good balance of my Latino and American sides. Some of my social media has pictures of my family that my friends wouldn’t really know, for example I have pictures of when I went to Peru,” Franco said.
Franco said for him, social media is the great equalizer, bringing both of his words together, and Reynoso finds the same to be true.
“Most of the people I’ve gotten to know on social media are accepting,” Reynoso said.
Social media is turning out to be the way many first-generation Americans are blending their dual identities into a single unified representation of who they really are – helping them be the people they really want to be.
Social media works for this because it gives students a platform to be as creative as they want and as open as they want to be. Social media is a free space for people to express themselves and show followers who they are.
Even non-first-generation Americans like Meghan Fitzpatrick are finding social media a good way to learn about new cultures.
“I get to expose myself to cultures and different people of different backgrounds who I normally wouldn’t meet in my everyday life,” Fitzpatrick said.
In a time where it still can be hard for people with ethnic roots to feel like they really fit in, first generation students have found social media the perfect way to reveal more about who they are – without fearing what anyone else might think or say.
