Maya walked to the bus station, the warm, sticky air of Singapore hanging over her. A slight breeze cooled her face as the sounds and symbols of Mandarin Chinese circled her brain after her kumon, or tutoring, lesson. She stopped as usual at the convenience store to pick up cheesy sausages or banana gummy candy with an ice tea for her hour-long commute home. She sips her tea as she waits for the bus, not feeling a care in the world.
Maya Venkataraman was 11 then, but she is now a 20-year-old sophomore majoring in both psychology and creative writing at Otterbein. However, Maya’s story did not simply start in Singapore and end in Ohio. She has lived in other states and countries, making travel and cultural amalgams an integral part to her life. Yet, maintaining this aspect of her life alongside American culture is not always as easy as sipping tea and eating cheesy sausages due to struggles of acculturation.
Originally from India, Maya’s parents began their life in Oklahoma with their first daughter, Maya’s older sister, Priyanka. Five years later the family moved to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where Maya was born, in 1997. The family moved to Singapore soon after, where Maya gained a brother and lived there for 11 years, until moving back to Malaysia where Maya graduated high school. Her parents and brother continue to live in Malaysia today.
Although her family spent time in the U.S., Maya said one of the hardest parts of transitioning to life in the U.S. is the lack of diversity in the community and adjusting to American traditions.
“Living here isn’t as diverse of a community anymore,” said Maya. “Living in Asia, I was exposed to all sorts of culture. It’s very different coming here and not being used to some of the traditions and seeing the way everyone seems to know how to act. It wasn’t like that in Asia; Everyone embraced their own culture.”
Maya’s sister, Priyanka, made the first move back to the United States for college when she chose Ohio Wesleyan University. Because she was already an American citizen, Priyanka found the move back logical, even though she soon found that she felt like a mismatched sock when people assumed she was an international student.
“A lot of people thought I would suffer from reverse culture-shock, but that wasn’t the case,” Priyanka said. “But what was most interesting for me being in Ohio was that I was always considered international even though I was an American citizen.”
Despite the struggles of acculturation, Maya notes that she continues to have a strong Asian influence on her life through practicing traditions and holidays celebrated through her Asian upbringing. She hopes to incorporate more of her culture with the American culture she experiences on a daily basis.
Instead of cheesy sausages and banana gummy candy, Maya now walks to the Otterbean to pick up a cookie and tea for her five-minute commute to Towers, thoughts of English lectures filling her head before her creative writing class. The slight breeze hitting her face as she walks out of the Otterbean briefly turns Westerville into Singapore, the scent of banana gummy candy and warm air drifting back to her memory like a song long forgotten, and for a moment, she does not feel a care in the world.
