I was raised in the United States (New York) by parents who had recently emigrated from Jordan. Like many immigrants they intended to return home but never did. My parents eventually decided that we were better off in the United States, particularly because of the educational opportunities. Whether we were better off in the United States is a futile question—one in which I am not particularly interested although it concerned me often in my youth as I struggled to negotiate what I experienced then as drastically distinct and competing cultural demands.