First Amendment Essay Contest: Freedom

By Nicole Hong
Munster High School

I am the girl without a hometown.

Americans call me “the Chinese girl,” and Chinese people call me “the American girl.” I’ve spent my life in Maryland, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Indiana, and an island off the coast of Shanghai. I’ve lived in the city, the suburbs, and even a college town. When strangers casually ask me where I’m from, I just grin and say, “It’s kind of complicated.”
I’ve never stayed in one location long enough to watch people evolve. We usually stay in one place just long enough so that leaving is bitterly heartbreaking.

The toughest move yet was at the beginning of my sophomore year when we moved from Philadelphia to Munster, IN, home of the Frozen Yogurt Express and, not one, but two movie theaters. My new high school was filled with grade-crazed students who were willing to cross any ethical barrier to get the grade point averages they wanted. I was faced with a whole new set of cliques that I needed to penetrate and new teachers that I needed to please. Things were looking pretty grim.

I decided to find my voice by taking Journalism 1 and subsequently, joining the newspaper staff. My parents encouraged this move since both my mom and my dad had always wanted to be journalists, but a journalist in China is essentially just another channel for communist propaganda. I got a taste of the bittersweet world of cutthroat journalism,
but in spite of the grueling hard work, I realized that I had the power to actually influence people and express my views openly. I could write about topics like gay marriage and teenage drinking and not worry about being suspended from school. I was protected, protected by a few words in a 220-year-old document sitting in Washington, D.C. Freedom of the press hit close to home, and I finally understood why our founding fathers risked everything they had to fight for their freedoms.

I believe that everything happens for a reason, that every closed door means another window of opportunity that opens. Every friend I’ve said goodbye to brought me closer to another friend in a new location. With each move, I’ve discovered new cultures, new perspectives, new things about myself. I can’t help but wonder if my destiny was already charted out for me and if every move has brought me closer to the people that are destined to influence me.

I often wonder what my life would be like if we had permanently stayed in Maryland or if my parents had never moved to America in the first place. Then I realize that I would have never seen the Liberty Bell or tasted the mouthwatering milkshakes at Steak ‘N Shake or held the power I have today as an editor on the school newspaper. Everything happens for a reason.

This, I believe.

Nicole Hong is the feature editor of Munster High School’s student newspaper Crier and is also a varsity policy debater. She has been playing piano for 11 years and speaks both French and Chinese. After high school, she hopes to major in political science or history and eventually become a college professor.