{"id":2536,"date":"2021-11-29T15:14:14","date_gmt":"2021-11-29T15:14:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/writers-house-review\/?page_id=2536"},"modified":"2021-11-29T15:41:44","modified_gmt":"2021-11-29T15:41:44","slug":"second-generation","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/writers-house-review\/volume-2-fall-2021\/second-generation\/","title":{"rendered":"second-generation"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Sheethal Ayalasomayajula<\/em><\/h4>\n

<\/h4>\n


and I know they\u2019re watching<\/span>
from fine spread ashes<\/span>
laughing maybe<\/span>
at how a ten-minute walk suddenly seems too much,<\/span>
at how the cloudless sky rains hellfire<\/span>
when to them the heat, this heat, warranted an extra layer.<\/span><\/p>\n

and maybe they\u2019re confused<\/span>
by how much school means now,<\/span>
education outweighing the choice to farm land,<\/span>
and how I\u2019ve never seen land farmed,<\/span>
and only breathed it in once from a train:<\/span>
rice paddies form glimmering islands under the sun.<\/span><\/p>\n

and they might feel pity,<\/span>
for my microwave curry, store-bought yogurt,<\/span>
but never for me, because I have what they wanted<\/span>
I have what they worked for:<\/span>
I\u2019m in the promised land<\/span>
with dreams they saw on grey film screens,<\/span>
bunking class to eat charred corn at the beach.<\/span><\/p>\n

and I have the claim to citizenship,<\/span>
the claim to equality, to humanity,<\/span>
when I march to the corner store for salt,<\/span>
when football games seep into festival season.<\/span>
and I call myself the best of both.<\/span><\/p>\n

and I hope they\u2019re proud<\/span>
not of my performance quality, but of my decision to perform<\/span>
and of how I respect the heat, the humidity<\/span>
when my hair puffs out like cotton<\/span>
and how I pull it back into two tight braids<\/span>
and lay on the stone floor just to cool down<\/span>
before getting back up to work again.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

Sheethal Ayalasomayajula<\/strong> is a sophomore at Rutgers New Brunswick’s School of Arts and Sciences. She is a cellular biology and neuroscience major who has always had a passion for writing and storytelling.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sheethal Ayalasomayajula and I know they\u2019re watchingfrom fine spread asheslaughing maybeat how a ten-minute walk suddenly seems too much,at how the cloudless sky rains hellfirewhen to them the heat, this … Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":442,"featured_media":0,"parent":1821,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2536","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nsecond-generation - Writers House Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/writers-house-review\/volume-2-fall-2021\/second-generation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"second-generation - Writers House Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Sheethal Ayalasomayajula and I know they\u2019re watchingfrom fine spread asheslaughing maybeat how a ten-minute walk suddenly seems too much,at how the cloudless sky rains hellfirewhen to them the heat, this … Read More\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/writers-house-review\/volume-2-fall-2021\/second-generation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Writers House Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-11-29T15:41:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/writers-house-review\/volume-2-fall-2021\/second-generation\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/writers-house-review\/volume-2-fall-2021\/second-generation\/\",\"name\":\"second-generation - 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