When I arrived at the CAUSE office in Los Angeles at 9:00 am sharp on June 13th, I was still jet lagged. It had only been three days since I had arrived in California, and my body was still becoming accustomed to the 2,500 miles and three hour time difference I had traveled from my home in Honolulu, Hawai’i. Granted, it wasn’t the first time I had been far from home, but it was one of the few times I had gone anywhere outside the bubble that was USC. It was also my first in-person college internship, given a year of online school freshman year and the restrictions on in-person events due to COVID.
As my cohort slowly shuffled into the CAUSE office we filled the space with awkward chatter and “get-to-know-you” questions. I found myself in a room with people from places ranging from Wisconsin to Cambodia, and from varying schools and fields of study. I found myself wondering if the pan-ethnic label of “Asian” would be enough to unite so many differences. Little did I know I would find the answer to my question within three days.
After the first day filled with housekeeping and expectations, we embarked on a three-day retreat at Cal State Los Angeles. As we ventured through dorm rooms and dining halls, I saw the awkward chatter turning into something a little more comfortable. It wasn’t until we proceeded to present our life maps, though, that I felt like I really knew the members of my cohort.
Our first activity on the retreat was to draw out our own life maps. With a large piece of paper and a colored Sharpie in hand, we mapped out the highs and lows, and large turning points in our lives. Even as I worked on my own life map, I found myself peeking over at others’ for inspiration, and being amazed at the different events they had plotted out. On those maps, rather than just singular events, I saw woven together tales of adversity, intellectual curiosity, and an engagement with API identity that I only hoped to one day write on my own life map.
One of my cohort members, Pisith, presented, and his story moved me to near tears. As an international student from Cambodia, he sought to educate people on Cambodian culture through starting his own Cambodian Cultural Club, all while navigating the barriers of being an international student with no family in the United States. Though not fully, I understand just how hard it is to move across an ocean to further your education without the same support system people who grew up in the area have. Hearing his story inspired me, and also led me to feel closer with the rest of my cohort due to our shared vulnerability.
Another member, PaNhia, presented, and again I was amazed by her tale of personal strength and courage. She decided to fly to Los Angeles and commit herself to this internship despite having lived in the Midwest all of her life, and had only taken one plane ride in the United States before CAUSE. I could never imagine being able to step outside my comfort zone in that way.
While these life maps, and the others that were shared had many differences from my own life, at the end of our presentations, I found myself feeling more connected to the group than distanced. As I was talking with PaNhia, she shared a quote that I think encapsulates the life map activity: “In many ways for the API community, our differences are what tear us apart. But here, they seem to be what gives us strength.”
I don’t think I’d be alone in saying that I found a shared sense of community in the life map activity. By the end of the retreat, though we had started as people who didn’t even know each other’s favorite colors, we had a group chat, spent hours playing games together, and had become more community than cohort. I have no doubt that as I work with them to create change, I will continue to be inspired by and learn from their stories.