Stage 4: Introspection. In which the person attempts to integrate their new identity into the dominant culture without compromising it.
After my 4 years at Michigan and an additional year in Ann Arbor, I moved to LA for grad school. Though LA has one of the largest Asian populations in the country, my grad school was housed in a seminary, so I anticipated that my community would look different than the one I’d been in for the last few years. That didn’t really bother me, though; after 5 years of almost total immersion, I felt ready to be a part of a community that was a little more integrated.
I thoroughly enjoy reading your posts. You have an eloquent writing style that has me feeling as if I can relate to what you write about, when in all fairness, I should not be able to relate that well. There is power in that, I think. Thank you for transporting my brain into another perspective so effortlessly for a few minutes every now and then.