Alexa S.
She/her | 27 | Nanchang, Jiangxi Province
The most important thing in my life is my family and friends (too many to draw). My family includes my mother, and my two fur siblings. I have always grown up around animals, so it’s in my nature to be an animal lover. My mom is an extremely wise and kind woman and the way I live my life and treat people comes from her.
I also drew the space needle because it’s a staple in Seattle where I’ve lived all my life. The other items I drew around myself include music, soccer, youtube, and 2 of my favorite foods; pasta and bagels. Even though I don’t currently play soccer much, it was always my favorite sport growing up! Music is also a huge part of my life - I listen to it every day, multiple times a day and you can always find me jamming wherever I go. Besides hanging with friends and going on walks with my dog, I also enjoy watching movies, tv and also youtube!
Connecting with Chinese Culture
To be honest I have never really been super invested in the Chinese culture. Since I was adopted so young this has always been tricky for me and until more recently, I feel like I’ve always been disconnected from it. When I was younger my mom did send me to a Chinese culture camp to try and involve me in the community and whatnot. I did go for a few years but I never found myself truly connecting to anyone besides one gal who I’ve known my whole life. I did experience another opportunity when I was a sophomore in high school where I went back to China with my best friend and sister who are also adopted and got to visit all of our orphanages. It was an incredibly enlightening experience and I even got to meet my foster mom and brother. Although I was grateful for it all, it still was hard because I didn’t remember either of them but they did. So in that way I felt bad, because she remembered me and I couldn’t feel the emotions she was feeling. After that visit, I strangely never felt the need to go back, because again, I felt very disconnected when I was there and also because there was so much pressure to know Chinese since I visually look the part.
However, over my life I have encountered a surprising amount of other young women who have been adopted so I feel like in that way I’m always subconsciously always connected to it someway. And ultimately if I ever had the opportunity to go back to China I wouldn’t say no but it’s not necessarily at the top of my list. Because at the end of the day I will always wonder if I have any siblings out there, or if I’ll find my birth parents, but reality is that may never happen due to a multitude of reasons. I’ve always been at peace with that but I know if that were possible my mom would 100% support me.
