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Together Apart: Freshman Colloquium

Panel 2: Personal Narrative / Arrivals and Departures

The personal narratives of this panel use place and space to investigate the complex movements of our lives. From Istanbul to New Jersey to the Pacific Northwest, the authors take us on journeys around the world, considering the nature of home and travel. At the same time, the authors also take us on journeys deep into the self—the experience of loss, the pain of being othered, the discovery of beauty, the power of art, the voyage of growing up. In these compelling narratives, we experience arrivals, departures, and transformational moments in between. --C. S.

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By Yi-Ann Li

Learning apart, away from my peers and in the secluded little corner in my bedroom, has given me a lot of time to reflect on my past as I enter a new chapter of my life. In the moments I spent alone, even if in front of a Zoom call of one hundred people, I found myself living between the feelings of isolation and cultural struggles I faced from my youth until now. Being a second-generation Asian American who grew up in a predominantly white community, I felt torn between trying to fit into American culture at school and hanging onto the Chinese culture of my roots. The alienation I suffered as a result of trying to balance the two feels awfully familiar to the isolation I felt in these past few months, as I struggled to organize my life and find friends. I tell the story of how it felt to lose a part of myself in my inter-cultural struggles, just like how I feel like I’ve lost a part of my life in these unexpected times as I try to find a community of my own through Zoom calls and Instagram DMs at USC.