I’ve been through a series of transitional phases in my life. From the awkward stage of entering middle school to moving across the country for college, there have been a series of in-betweens sprinkled throughout my very short 18 years of life.

All of these phases have required me to leave something behind and welcome something new. It’s weird — not because I’m not used to change, but because I’m at a crossroads of who I was and who I’m about to become.

Over time, I’ve accepted labels and ripped them off as I welcomed new ones.

When I was 12, I wasn’t a little kid anymore, but I wasn’t quite a teenager, either. In high school, my involvement with student government put me right in between the labels of “student” and “leader.” Even within these eras, I was so many things at once: a pianist and a violinist, a tutor and a science bowl teammate, a night owl and an early bird.

Now, as a college freshman, I’m just barely an adult — yet still a teenager. I’m strung along even more in-betweens.

I’m finding identities between the West Coast and East Coast. I’m a double major, stretching myself thin across two concentrations of study. I’m a student and an on-campus intern, finding a balance between my work and academic life.

And in between all of that, I’m kind of an in-between myself.

Being an Asian American who’s not fully immersed in either Asian or American culture is strange. My immigrant parents and grandparents give me a secondhand connection to my roots in Hong Kong and Macau, but my upbringing in the United States has both complemented and contradicted my cultural heritage.

My Cantonese is imperfect, and I can barely read Chinese or keep up with the pop culture of Hong Kong. At the same time, I’m not entirely immersed in American culture — I’m not a fan of backyard barbecues, and I’ve never understood football.

However, there is beauty in being an in-between.

I’ve blended these two parts of me and blurred the lines between what I’m supposed to be and the person I’m becoming. This is something I’ve been doing with the other dichotomies in my life as well.

I see how I’m changing and try to incorporate my new life with elements of my old one. I’ve continued to use my Bay Area slang while in Boston — for the record, “hella” means “very” or “a lot” — and I’ve started to slip Cantonese words and phrases into my English conversations with my international friends.

The weird part is that I’ve gotten really good at adapting to change. Like a chameleon, I’m good at blending into my surroundings and making them my home. I’ve become pretty good at finding the comfortable lilac between the pinks and blues. I’m good at figuring out what I want to do and centering my focus on the things I want to achieve.

Most importantly, I’m good at creating the version of myself that best represents me — the version that incorporates my childhood self’s love for Pokémon, my middle school self’s obsession with supernatural fiction and my high school self’s infatuation with world history.

Ultimately, I’m a mosaic of every interest I’ve ever had, whether it’s a past or current part of me. No matter how different I become in the future, I’m going to hold onto the pieces of me that make me the best version of myself.

In a society where I once always felt pressured to be one thing or another, I’m learning to be okay with being in the middle.

I’m taking economics and international relations classes that blend seamlessly. I’m learning marketing skills in my internship that teach me foundational economics. I’m staying in on some weekends and going out on others, perfecting the work-hard-play-hard balance.

I’m just a little bit of everything, and in between every single identity is the composition of who I am at this very moment.

Acclimating is all about finding comfort in being uncomfortable — and being okay with the limbo that is the in-between.

I’m still finding my footing in the weird dance that is figuring out college and being an adult. But with the help of my old steps and the introduction of some new ones, I’m sure it’ll all work out in the end.

For now, I’ll just enjoy the journey of the in-between.