Who Am I?

By: Melani Segovia

I don’t know who I really am right now. I don’t know where I belong. My name is Melani, but I go by many different things. Sometimes, they call me “Edith’s daughter”, while other times, as “The New Girl that came from the USA”, and my MOST favorite one, “Gringa”. I supposedly belong to the USA….I supposedly belong to El Salvador. I am between those two worlds, but I don’t really belong to either of them. I wasn’t born in the USA. I am Hispanic and I always looked that way. Some people would call me illegal. Some would say I was Mexican just because I was Hispanic, as if Mexico was the only country where they speak Spanish. I could never say I belonged in the USA because I didn’t. I was different and they looked at me different. I was born in El Salvador. When I came back, they called me “gringa” just because I had lived in the USA. People here think that if you come from the USA, then you automatically don’t know Spanish and dislike Hispanic people. People here look at me differently too. Some of them discriminate against me. They discriminate against their own people. They make it seem as if I don’t belong and when I try to fit in, they don’t let me. I have no other choice, but to feel different. Like I said before, I am between two worlds and don’t belong to either of them. My name is Melani, but I go by different things. I guess I don’t really have a name. I am sixteen years old and I can’t wait to find out where I truly belong. This is me, but I don’t quite know who I am at this moment.