Why I Mastered Code-Switching

And my commitment to stop trying to fit in

Photo by Jared Giles

In my 8th grade yearbook, my English teacher wrote a message that has stayed with me for the past 14 years. “It’s O.K. to be the only one at times (you know) because you help to break the mold.” It wasn’t difficult to decipher what she meant: there will be moments throughout my life, as there had already been, in which I will be the only…