Logic: Thou shall not waste food

I was in the second grade and she had just transferred into my school. I brought out my own lunch alongside my classmates’ PB&J, Shipley’s Donuts and Chick-fil-a, and that’s when we all heard “UGH, what smells bad?” I turned to Rebecca, that little drama queen, and she looks down at my lunch, “It smells like diarrhea!”. First off, no. Second, you dare suggest I waste food? Thirdly, 点心 (dim sum) was a treat and a Chinese delicacy! I would like to say that I stood up to that know-it-all, but alas I just laughed it off and let it slide.

It was only quite recently where I heard my Asian-American peers refer to this as the “Lunchbox Moment”, and apparently, it’s this situation whereby they were bullied by Americans for what they had brought for lunch. Because god-forbid that you bring something other than a sandwich or lunchables.

But the real tragedy, in my case, was that Rebecca was Chinese. True, she was adopted by, a very sweet American lady, but one would think that she would be a little more understanding! It was from that moment that I realized that there is an unspoken difference between Asian-Americans and me. At the tender age of seven, I experienced what it was like being outed by one of your own. Needless to say, I’ve never trusted anyone ever again.