My initial reaction when I found this piece as I was flipping through the magazine was "Hey.  There's something I think I wanna read."  As I read it, the amount of similarity between the narrator and I grew.  Every paragraph was greeted with a "YEAH SAME."

   First, I would like to congratulate Roger Lam for such submitting this amazing piece into Teen Ink.  It contains so much of his thoughts and his feelings that the reader can feel like they are inside of Roger's brain listening to him talk.  Sentences like "The visits were great and all, but they had the same kind of fascination as going to Disney World than feeling like a prodigal son returning home." let's the reader understand him and draws them farther and farther into his tale.

   The author's tone was realistic, it felt legit.  It felt like he was speaking to the audience (or, us) in his normal voice.  It didn't feel like he was writing this as a formal piece of writing or forcing the words out of his brain.  He talked like you would to a friend, not like you would to a teacher.

   The story is about Roger trying to figure out where he stood; as a first generation American, or as an American Born Chinese.  At the end he accepted where he came from, who he was and was proud of his ethnicity.  This presents a strong message to readers; stronger than any fairytale or children's book can, because this is a story that is true and that many can relate to.  It presents the message of accepting who you are and that you should be proud of you.