ABSTRACT
“Why does everybody think that I am a genius?” Ling tells her mother over the phone with frustration. “I am just a hard working student. I make mistakes and fail sometimes too," she continues. Lingexplains that she finds the pressure of being the “model minority” overwhelming. Despite her success academically, she struggles to live up to the expectations that others have placed upon her, just because she is Asian. She wants people to see her as an individual, with qualities and defects, rather than as a representative of her entire race. Tomorrow she has a final exam, and as usual, she worries that she is not going to be able to sleep well because of the anxiety of not being able to get the expected “A.”
