Every time I say one of these, it feels slightly unnatural—like I’m cheating on the “real” truth. But apparently, that tension is where the growth is. It’s not indecision. It’s expansion. And honestly, one of the clearest ways this has started to click for me isn’t just in therapy—but in something much more lived-in: the week where St. Patrick’s Day and Nowruz overlap.

If you’re biracial—or bicultural, even someone who exists between identities—you might know this feeling. One day you’re wearing green, maybe half-ironically participating in a cultural tradition that feels both yours and not entirely yours. A few days before, you’re setting a Haft-Seen table, honoring the Persian New Year, engaging in rituals that feel deeply ancestral, grounding, and also…sometimes distant.

Two celebrations. Two cultural identities. Two emotional experiences.

And my instinct is still to sort this out:
Which one is really me?
Which one do I prioritize?
Am I being inauthentic in one space? Not enough in another?

But this is exactly where dialectical thinking sneaks back in—usually in my therapist’s voice in my head, if I’m being honest.