Family Background

My whole family Swedish, both my mom and my biological dads side. I grew up with a lot of Swedish culture and many traditions. Instead of eating oreos and dinosaur shaped chicken nuggets, like most of my friends, I ate krumkake and lutefisk. I attended a Lutheran church my entire life. My Swedish heritage is a huge part of who I am. I didn't even know I had Native American blood too until there was this math, engineering, and science program I wanted to do at my middle school. The problem was, this program was only available to minorities, I'm not sure what percentage I am Cherokee, but it was enough to get into the program. I don't identify as Native American, I don't even look slightly Native. The reason I don't identify as Native American is because I didn't even know about that part of my family tree until I was 13 and I hadn't grown up with any of the culture, however, in terms of my family background it is still a part of me, and something I do want to learn about. Some might say that I took advantage of my Native blood to get into a program, that's probably true, but I didn't lie any one. Also, I know many of the other kids in the class didn't know anything about their parents culture or heritage. However, because I identify as white and look 100% Swedish, the rest of the class, predominantly African American and Latino, did not accept me. The way I saw it and still do, is that I got in fair and square, just like every one else did. I can't help how I look. This was the first time in my life that I felt like an outsider because of the way I looked. This was my first experience with reverse discrimination based on my physical appearance. This experience gave me a good idea of what it feels like the be the minority of the group and it's certainly unpleasant. I hope that because of this experience I am  less judgment and prejudice and more accepting.