What Makes Me... Me Michelle Anna Brier

My mother was born and raised in Vietnam. My father is a fifth-generation Californian whose family journeyed across Death Valley in the 19th century. My aunts are Taiwanese and Singaporean, and my cousin is Italian.

I was well on my way through elementary school before I realized that not everyone eats phở regularly, and not everyone has family members strewn around the world. As I grew up, I began to notice the cultural divides all around me -- including the ones within my own family. I observed how my father’s Caucasian family and my mother’s Vietnamese family never truly intermingled with one another. For example, I had two Christmases every year, one with my dad’s side and one with my mother’s. One in which I spoke English, the other in Vietnamese. With such a unique combination of cultures in my family, I found myself suspended between worlds, not wholly a part of one or another.

Over time, I grew to appreciate the mixed heritage that both added to my character and set me apart from my friends. Living in the Bay Area, with its diverse population, I was intrigued by cultural differences and sought to understand other families and their traditions. In school, I found myself fascinated in French class, going home and...