September 15, 2016
I found out about Hamilton through a Google Search that was something along the lines of “good liberal arts colleges, United States.” The idea of attending, one, a school in the United States, two, a non-research university and three, a school not located in a metropolis was so outrageous in my home city of Hong Kong that my high school guidance counselor forced me to give her an essay rationalizing my unconventional choice. Only if she deemed my response acceptable would I be “allowed” to apply. Looking back on that experience, I find another reason for choosing Hamilton: here, instead of being asked, “Why?” you are asked, “Why not?”
After a thirty-six-hour journey—complete with flight cancellations, reported shootings and a night’s campout in the Greyhound bus station—I am officially on Hamilton turf. High-rise skyscrapers renovated on the daily have become brick houses of a bygone age. Whereas weeks ago I woke up to drilling over the whir of my dehumidifier, today I wake up to birds chirping and still cannot get over the fact that my roommate brought a contraption intended to add moisture to the room. My new Ghanaian friends and I still struggle to discern Fahrenheit, and, while they multiply by four to convert dollars to cedis, I multiply by eight to convert to yuan.
Hamilton College, as I have found, also opposes Hong Kong in terms of culture. A keep-to-yourself, don’t-ask-stupid-questions disposition pervaded my high school. Even now, blatantly saying, “Hi,” to strangers is a foreign concept to me. Interestingly, however, arrival in Hamilton has left me with a stronger sense of belonging to Hong Kong. If you asked me where I had come from, I would have given the whole my-mom-is-from- Indiana-and-my-dad-is-from- Mainland-China-but-I-grew-up-in-Hong-Kong-but-speak- Mandarin-not-Cantonese spiel. Here, however, I am indisputably a Hong Konger. And for once, this label has done me nothing but good. Political tensions between Mainland China and the Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong have made it tricky to proudly announce one’s background. At Hamilton, people do not question my home for a second and instead shower me with questions stemmingfrom genuine intrigue: “Wow! What’s it like there? How far is it from here? Do you eat Dim Sum?” When people ask, I try to give the most precise answers possible. And if I don’t know, I make up answers that best depict the image I’ve carefully painted in people’s minds. I try to portray Hong Kong as a pretty cool place.
I still catch myself from time to time, taken aback that I am actually here, on a campus that I knew only through Youtube videos and virtual tours. I doubt that I will ever be completely convinced. Nevertheless, just as I had developed a new sense of attachment to my old home, I have a new home entirely.