Tsejin Bhotia ’16 Excerpt of 2016 Graduation Speech
Educated in public school until eighth grade, I had preconceived ideas of what private school would be like. A naive thirteen-year-old, I thought that life at an independent school meant wearing fancy clothes every day, getting manicures after school, and drinking lattes during frees. Soon into my freshman year at Friends, I realized that that was not the EXACT reality of life at this Quaker school. However, I still felt self-conscious about my background—my race, culture, and socio-economic status. Friends was not as racially diverse as my middle school, which was a big part of the challenge. Less than 20% of the class is made up of students of color. I recall being acutely aware of how different this environment was from the one I had been in at my public school. Self-acceptance is a lifelong process, and Friends has become a critical part of my development. Over the years I have felt increasingly welcomed and supported by our community. As I took steps to open up to others, they opened up to me. So many people in this school have readily embraced my background. Students and faculty alike have encouraged me to see my own story as valuable, to understand that my culture is worthy of celebration. At Friends I have discovered the beauty of being part of a community of diverse stories.
I want to take a moment to thank my parents for all of their sacrifices and steadfast love of me, our family, and our Tibet. My parents have always thought about others before themselves; they have always made sure that my brothers and I felt comfortable before they themselves felt so. My gratitude towards them is beyond comprehension. Yet daily I pay homage to them, to all struggles for human dignity, and to this Quaker education that has empowered me to speak truth to power. The mission of the School, my parents’ lives, and Jason’s classes have all combined to inspire me to be an activist for social justice. I have found my voice, both as a minority in this community and as an individual in this world.
One person in particular, Jason Craige Harris, has opened my eyes to things I would never have been able to learn about on my own. This year was about embracing myself regardless of doubters and negative forces. Jason’s classes in Religion and Social Justice, and Poverty in the U.S. have allowed me to connect my own life with these topics, and share them with students in my class and beyond. His openness about himself and his struggles in life genuinely inspire me to embrace myself.
Having become aware of the value and power of my own voice, I have sought to amplify Tibetan voices, which are so brutally suppressed that self-immolation as protest has become an awful last resort for more than 150 Tibetans since 2009. Nobody, not you, not I, nor any human being, should have to put their lives in danger, to suffer, because their voices are not being heard. I recognize the earnest longing of aTibet free from oppression, and I identify with that longing for a world that ought to be.
Embracing myself fully has meant embracing my family’s story—its beauty and its pain. My parents escaped Tibet in 1959, when there was a failed uprising against the Chinese regime. They fled to India with almost nothing from their motherland. With their faith, commitment to family, and sheer hard work and persistence, my parents brought themselves from a life of poverty in India to one of opportunity in the U.S.
I embrace the idea of radical self-acceptance and reject all forces that would require the rejection of myself. It took a while, maybe half my time here at Friends, to come to this place, but I am so proud to be able to say, “I love who I am, and I am proud of the person I have become,” and I think everybody here should be able to say that, especially in a community like Friends.
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