Finally, a foundation to perfectly match my skin tone. And no more searching: the key to my ideal eye shadow shades are only a page-turn away. I have spent hundreds of dollars hoping these empty claims would fulfill the gap in my aesthetic personality. But little did I know that this gap went further than a hole in my wallet.

A child’s innocence saved me from early years of disaffection. Back then, familial differences were not recognized as such, and home life was simply familiar. But the elementary and middle school years broke this reverie and, against my sturdiest opposition, these differences became emphasized. The fact that I ate snails, that my parents spoke another language and had accents and that our dishwasher was used to store dishes and not clean them became points of embarrassment and no longer normal; I was lucky that every meal included a healthy helping of rice, or else having friends over for an evening meal would have been an exceedingly embarrassing event.

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