Embracing Your Liminal Identity | Erika Egawa | TEDxSeisenInternationalSchool

[Music] so where i'm from i'm from poppies and the twisted vines of cabernet from coffee shop happiness to buzzing stinging blissfulness down a lavender walkway i'm from stuff to the gills in multi-night from carne asada fries to cup ramen at night i'm from love is patient love is kind from sunday best to shinto shrines curled up by the fireplace gathered round the dining table i listen to my family's tales i am from the war-torn the immigrants the meek hard working earnest furthest from weak generations that chose that road less traveled by strong men and women more than what meets the eye i am from the ashes where the phoenix rises hopeful adventurous a life full of surprises i'm from two worlds bridging together as one i don't know where i'm going but i know where i'm from hello and welcome my name is erica i'm a teacher here at csun international school and i teach language and literature today i'm going to be talking about embracing liminal identities now a few years back i wanted to return a textbook and i went up to the counter handed the textbook but the cashier looked me up and down and said what are you i thought maybe i misheard so but the person said again what are you uh i'm human i don't know what you want from me and he said no no no i mean where are you from what's your ethnicity i sighed and i went into my five-second rehearse bio that i've always said all my life well i'm half my mom's japanese my dad's american my dad met my mom when he was in japan i grew up in america oh coco coco that's what i wanted to know can i return my textbook now i've had so many interactions like these where i've ended up having to talk about my identity and share my whole life story with complete strangers and now that i think about it when i think about what that person said to me what are you that person probably genuinely didn't care about my identity or my family but really was wondering how should i label you what box should i put you in when we define people it's a matter of convenience we can label someone we know how to organize them into our mental system and then from there on out we know where that person sits in our worldview we know how to interact with that person how to talk with that person but what about someone like me on my american side i've been told that i'm not american enough on my japanese side i'm not japanese enough i've even been told that i'm not japanese american enough so where do i fit in my identity is somewhere between those defined and prescribed societal definitions my identity is a liminal one somewhere in between so what are liminal spaces in architecture they're often defined as the transitional in between spaces where people often go through them and then quickly leave where they're forgotten or abandoned maybe some of you can connect to this where you felt at some point in your life you don't fit into those prescribed spaces your identity doesn't fit neatly into one of the boxes that already exist you lie in the liminal space today i want to talk about those identities especially children and young adults who really haven't developed a strong sense of self and they might feel that they are lost in that liminal space as an educator i have the wonderful privilege of working with children from elementary all the way up to high school and one of the observations that i've noticed is that children when they're young they are just brimming with questions and answers if you ask them who are you they will confidently tell you about who they are and what they believe themselves to be i've heard things like i love cats i'm an artist i'm caring or i'm going to be a unicorn but then as the children grow older there seems to be a disconnect when their minds were once filled with their passions and dreams it becomes filled with the worries and expectations often put onto them by their teachers and adults around them the poem that i shared at the beginning was actually an assignment that i gave my seventh grade class to start off to start off our poetry unit i asked them to write about where they're from for me i had a lot to say about my identity so it poured out in a matter of minutes but what i soon realized was that my class actually they really struggled with this they didn't know where they were from they didn't know where they belonged and it was a challenge for them to express who they are their identity was lost in the liminal space so educators how can educators embrace liminal identities especially our students who might feel that they don't have a place they don't have a strong sense of self the first way is to build positive relationships when i was in high school a teacher called on me in front of the whole class and asked me and said erica how did your parents meet followed by did your mom marry your dad for money and even further i heard that japanese wives always walk three steps behind their husbands because they're submissive now this was totally unprompted completely unrelated to what we were learning and you can imagine i didn't know how to respond to that in fact i don't even remember what i said but i know how i felt maybe maybe that teacher genuinely was trying to build a relationship maybe that teacher was just innocently inquisitive about my life and my family but on the receiving end it was absolutely intrusive and so insensitive and i never wanted to share about myself or my identity with my teacher so then educators how do we build a positive relationship we need to step into their limital identities let the students talk to us let them share about us before you start asking questions before you start imposing your belief systems on them let them come to you and share what they think what they believe what they're experiencing the other aspect that we can do a simple step for building a positive relationship is getting their names right if you don't know how to pronounce it or spell them spell it just ask them take the time what they care about is if you are making that connection giving the effort to create a safe space and when they're ready they will come to you they will share about their lives the second thing we need to remember as educators is that identities are precious and language absolutely has power in another experience it was december 7th we were learning about pearl harbor the teacher asked me to read that section out loud to class i did my part i read that section i sat down teacher then turned to me and said erica what do you have to say for your people that one comment maybe that teacher doesn't even remember saying that to me but that one comment i carried that with me from my teenage years into my adulthood it became a part of my identity it made me ashamed for my japanese side it made me feel guilty for something i personally didn't do language has power what we say as educators can either build or can hurt students even if it's a passing comment language has power and identities are precious the last thing that we can do to embrace liminal identities is to represent them later on when i went off to university this was the first time that i was actually surrounded by a diverse group of people i started to see people who looked like me who spoke like me just like me thought like me and i felt visible it was the first time where i could feel comfortable in myself and start to share who i am educators it's so important that we look at our curriculum we need to amplify liminal identities by choosing texts topics and issues that represent them we also need to consider what narratives what narratives are being privileged which ones are being de-emphasized and which ones are missing altogether it's so important that our students can see themselves in what they are learning but what about those of us who are just trying to figure ourselves out how can you embrace your own identity now i thought about how i could approach this and i decided the best way would be to write a letter to myself to my teenage younger self so bear with me for this dear erica as your older more mature self there's so much i want to tell you i know that you just want to fit in you're of two worlds but you feel like you're really in neither you're stuck somewhere in between you have to field so many questions about yourself and you wonder why do i have to answer so many questions about myself why do i have to work so hard to prove myself why can't i fit in why is my thinking so different from people around me well i'll admit you're not going to have the answer and you're going to be really working on that even in your adult self but i can tell you the process that helped you understand who you are and we're going to look at it through a literary approach the first thing you need to remember and it's not a no-brainer for you is to read read read you've always been surrounded by books like a cactus in a barren desert trying to soak up as much as you can and all the stories the experiences the truths that are in this world you'll start with what you know books that you have and then slowly dip into some of the more complex but still safer comfortable topics and then when you're ready you'll dive into the vast sea of context concepts and conflicts by now you've got all that knowledge in your head and you start to have this growing question who am i what are my own beliefs this is when you need to look at your life and study your life like you would study a story your background where are you from your themes the themes in your life what patterns are emerging the characters who are the people that have shaped who you are the events what defining moments challenged or affirmed your identity when you think you've got that sorted and you have a building sense of self next you'll realize that you're ready to be part of a community now some people they have their stronghold beside them from when they're little and they're ready to go out into the world but for others for you erica you're going to need to forge new bonds new connections and that's okay look for people you can talk to be honest with who can challenge you whoever they are they're going to empower you to have a voice and finally when you think you have that voice and you're ready to share with the world become a storyteller share your unique story with the world tell people that this identity exists make yourself visible maybe it'll start with a short poem a little creative piece here or there but whatever way that you story tell make sure that you're including the important moments the emotions the memories that are so dear to your heart and my young self i wish i could tell you everything that you're going to go through joy love happiness but also heartbreak unbearable moments things that you don't want to remember whatever happens always remember to read keep analyzing keep discussing keep sharing this will be the way to your identity the path for you to understand yourself and at some point you'll realize that your limital identity it's not a forgotten passage it's not something to be ashamed of it's a celebrated promenade a bridge that connects identities together thank you

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 844

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Education, Education reform, English, TEDxTalks

Id: C90_bDibpAA

Length: 17min 9sec (1029 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 14 2021