Society has not limited many of my opportunities. Being an Asian-American I feel I have been given the same amount of opportunity to succeed as everyone else in my community. Having this Japanese background has probably actually benefited me in some areas like getting into colleges and such. Colleges now love diversity and even in my name, Adam Okimatsu, there's a ton of diversity right there. My life has been fortunate, having a strong family basis at home and parents that have brought me up right. It is hard to overcome such a tragedy as bad parenting. The wrong morals are taught to you that last an entire lifetime. Once you reach a certain age it is hard to change your outlook on things. If I was brought up poorly, I would still try my best to the be the best person I could be. It would be tough to overcome poor morals and proper social activity, but I would pull through. If I was in this situation and wasn't taught the correct morals and how to live in society, then I think I would lie or cheat or steal to get myself out of that situation. There comes a point where there is no where else to turn. There's a saying, "If you ain't cheating, you ain't trying hard enough." That is how I see this situation. At that point where your current situation is that bad, you have to do whatever you can to get out. The only thing I really wouldn't do would be kill someone. If I had to deal with this situation I would turn to music and art to express myself. I have trouble talking to people about my problems so I would most likely get it out by writing it down. I don't think my work would be anything that people would want so I probably wouldn't be able to capitalize on this outlet. The best thing I could do for myself would just to be to try and ignore the racism and prejudice put against me and keep working hard in whatever it is I am doing. For myself, I have had to overcome some judgements of me based on racism already.
