Nineteen Ninety Plus Eighteen

Time for another schpiel. ahem.

Today is sort of special for my family, but really just another day in our lives. We got up, had our nori rolls for breakfast, went to work, drove on the left side of the road, watered the garden, breathed fresh air, and looked at the sun set before we went to bed. But it is special in that way because every day still sends something refreshingly brilliant, so much so that that it has become less and less significant to mark the day that our lives changed forever - because it is still changing, and it is still good. Today is the 18th anniversary of our family's arrival in New Zealand.

We have lost count of the days and months we have lived, loved, learned, suffered, enjoyed, agonised, rejoiced, and survived in this wild little land at the bottom of the world. There isn't a large piece of log in the backyard with knife marks counting the days we have come thus far, or yet to have to go - just something in the back of my mind that ticks on January the Tenth of every year - another day of not looking back, just forwards and onwards.

I admire my parents for their amazing courage and fortitude - packing everything up and go. Two little girls in tow. Crazy Taiwanese New Age Hippies clonking their car along the road looking for a place to live. How could the sun be setting at 9.30pm? What on earth is Margerine? Why is the bed so soft? Why is the oven so big? Why are the neighbours so damn friendly? Why do they love BBQs so much? From having next to nothing to the mini empires they respectively have now. They gambled with their future and they have come out on top and they continue to be happy. They have taught me that nothing is impossible, and that there is nothing daunting in seeking out new horizons. Hold your ground, stand by your principles, be honest, integral, be yourself.

This isn't an essay about how hard it is being an immigrant or being teased at school for sounding different and doing weird things, or (still) being fobbed off by people I meet for the first time simply for the way that I look - its about saying how proud I am to be standing here today, saying to the world that I am a more competent person, a wiser person and a stronger person because I've had to try much harder and fight with much more, and because I have a unique heritage from two very unique cultures and histories. Both of which I strongly identify with - and is even more significant for me to realise this because once upon a time I couldn't identify with either. Most importantly, a very special, unique and strong family as my backbone, my big unstoppable rock. All this has shaped the person that I am today. Nineteen Ninety Plus Eighteen. Counting but not counting.