The exaggerated “O’s and “N’s. The mixture of 6 languages. The balance of British English and American English. The bridge between home and here. That is the accent that I carry. I carry my ancestors, who had to leave their homes amidst a gruesome partition. I carry my fathers hard work, and how he made a new life for us. I carry my mother's sacrifice, how she left her home and her family to start a new one and a new life. I carry my culture and heritage. The culture others gave up on to fit in somewhere else. I carry their sacrifice. I carry their loneliness. I carry the pride, togetherness, and love we grew up with. I carry the accent that makes me too foreign for home, but too foreign for here. 

I carry my father's anger. The anger that made him who he is today. The anger that protected him. The anger that gave him power. I carry my mother's irritation. Her pent up anger she can never express. The hardship she went through leaving her home and her parents. The anger when she felt alone. I carry my siblings' anger and anxiety. The anger of leaving home and moving to a different country. The anxiety of starting fresh in a high school where everybody knew each other. The anger of having to make new friends. The anger or having to normalize English and hiding away our mother tongue, in fear of anyone hearing the accent that we carry. 

I carry my family's expectations. The hardships they went through. The struggles they fought. I carry my father's stress, from work and for the future. The long nights he would work to get to where he is today. The sacrifice of living away from his family, so his family could have a good life. I carry my mother's anxiety. Her worries about raising me in a western country. I carry her fear. Her fear that I might go out of line. I carry my sister's bravery. The bravery of starting over in life at 16. The bravery to go through hardships so my brother and I could learn from it. How she guided my brother and me into becoming who we are today. I carry my brother's carefreeness. I carry his positive energy and strive to live in the moment. I carry their expectations to do better, to be better. I carry their expectation to be hardworking, like my father, to be selfless, like my mother, to be brave, like my sister, and to be carefree, like my brother.