I am Taiwanese. Right?

I was nominated to take part in the Taiwanese American Citizen League Leadership Conference this weekend.  At first I was a little confused as to why I was being nominated. I wasn't confused by the leadership part but by the organization hosting it. Yes, I'm aware that I am Taiwanese. I just never realized that my "peeps" recognized or claimed me.

I remember distinctly walking through the West Mall at UT during my freshman year of college where all of the organizations set up little booths recruiting new members. I walked past the table for the Asian sorority and one girl asked another "Should I give her a flyer?" to which another girl replied "No, she's too white."

So that's kind of been my mentality. I'm not Asian enough. (What does that even mean?! My DNA is 100% Asian.)

My family grew up in a suburb of Dallas where there was a good population of Chinese/Taiwanese folk. I thought we were active in that community. We went to Chinese school on Saturdays with everyone else and took piano and math and ballet lessons. We learned and carried out the traditions of our culture. Our schools weren't very diverse though. My family (cousins too) were one of the few ethnic racial families and we didn't have the opportunity to befriend too many other Asians.

Did that start my path to not being Asian enough?

So, I digress, I was nominated to attend this conference and I'm heading there in another hour. I'm a little nervous about going. I'm nervous about being called out as a fraud and being "too white." With conferences like this, I'm usually just nervous about having to do role play and team building, which to me are in the same category as shower games (which by the way, I loathe). So we'll see how it goes!