A Pair of Tickets: Personal Response Essay

â€Å" A Pair of Tickets† is about a women named June May who is traveling through her native country of China. I really enjoyed this story because I could relate to it in my own life experiences. After June May’s mom passes away she starts thinking about all the questions she wishes she had asked her about her life. Just like when any family members of mine passes away, I always think back and think about what type of questions could I have asked him or her before they passed away. June May was raised in San Francisco (which had many Chinese people at this time). She had a father and a mother who raised her in San Francisco. When June May’s mother passes away she soon find out that she has a twin sister in China that she never knew about. Her twin sister had written her mother a letter that they received a couple of months after her mother had passed away. So June May and her father decided that they were going to travel to China and see if they could find her twin sister, in addition to looking for her they were also going to visit family they hadn’t seen in years. When they arrived in to China June May is constantly comparing things she sees to what America is like. Her mother brought her up by telling her that all Chinese people have no choice but to act Chinese; it’s in their blood. June May at first thinks she’s nuts and doesn’t believe her. But after she passes away she soon realizes her mother was right and starts seeing a lot of comparison of how her mother acted and how she acted. When she arrives in China she really starts to feel Chinese. She didn’t wear makeup; she even starts introducing herself by her Chinese name Jing-Mei to her family members. This kind of reminds me of the time when I was in high school playing on sport teams. During high school friends and/or people in school would call me Nelson (since it’s my last name). I also would just tell people to call me Nelson since I have a twin brother because that way if they couldn’t tell my brother and I apart they could just call me Nelson and it would be right every single time. Once I got to college, I had to tell people to start calling me Elliott instead of Nelson because in college, it’s like a new beginning; and in a new beginning to something you want people to know you by your first name before people know your last name. Overall, June May’s introducing of her actual Chinese name marked the beginning of her acceptance of being true to her Chinese inheritance. While in her hotel June May finally realizes why her mother had left her twin sister behind. She wants to do everything she can now to find her twin sister and grow her Chinese heritage like her mother would of wanted her to do. Even myself can relate to why a mother could leave someone because this happened to me. I am adopted; which is kind of similar to what happened to June May because it’s still basically a Mom or Dad leaving their son/daughter. Finally, June May has accomplished the meaning of her mother’s name, Suyuan which means,† Long Cherished Wish. † Suyuan wish was for June May to grow into her Chinese heritage. I think the story was telling us that we will never know who we are until we know what our past and heritage is really about. I’ll be honest, when I was 16 years old marked the first time I asked my parents I live with now about my actual Mom and Dad. Overall, what I learned from hearing about my own past was that I am way better off now in the family I am in now. But I still see my actual birth mom every year once or twice and she still loves me. She had to let Aron and I get adopted because of money purposes; basically means that she wanted what was best for Aron and I.