Does an Accent Make Me English?
Before coming to Tufts, I had never thought of myself as being particularly English. Sure, my friends teased me about my tea addiction but I was always more American and Dutch than British. One of the benefits of being a third culture kid, I suppose. After coming to Tufts a couple months ago and have people ask me constantly if I’m from England (you mean the accent didn’t give it away?) I’ve started thinking a lot more about my own national identity. Does being born and raised in London make me English? Does that outweigh my mother being American and my dad being Dutch? But what I’ve learnt since arriving as a nervous Freshman in a new country just over two months ago is that I don’t have to choose between these. No one here will put you in a box and decide your identify for you.
Despite being very obviously international, that’s hardly the only facet of my identity. I’m international, American, queer, a self proclaimed art history nerd, a Doctor Who and Twin Peaks enthusiast, a musician, a feminist, an artist, and so much more. Everyone who I’ve met here has at least this many facets to their identity, if not more. I was worried about being pinned down as “that girl from London”, but I think most people here probably know me as that girl who obsessively makes tea, or the one who will ramble on about a painting for hours if you let her.
One of the aspects of Tufts that I’ve enjoyed most is discovering this multiplicity of identity. I had never even heard of this expression before, but now it seems fundamental to understanding who we are. Everyone here, and everywhere, is so much more than any one part of their identity. Tufts to me is a celebration of all these differences, not only between ourselves and others but within ourselves. They allow us to realize that even the people we seem very obviously different from, for example someone born and raised in London and someone born and raised in rural Minnesota, can have so much in common in spite of this distinction.