Exotic

Men rarely find me attractive, but when they do, my tropical lineage is the most oft-cited cause.

"You look so exotic, like you're from Ecuador."

"My friend pointed to you and said women from Egypt look like that. I said, daaaamn."

Lately people have been able to identify my exotic origins more precisely, thanks in part to my nosering and ethnocentric ensemble.

On my walk to school today, three young ambiguously brown men started staring at me from a block away and one of them hollered, "Hey, are you from India?"

"Yeah," I replied, knowing that I and all my progeny will be "from India" unless repetitious miscegenation erases any trace of that heritage into oblivion.

"Oh, we're looking for an Indian restaurant that's supposed to be around here, and you look all pretty and Indian, so we thought we'd ask you."

Aww. Of course, I was able to provide the needed information. Strangers often assume I'm the one-stop encyclopedia on South Asian restaurants, movies, classical literature, and whatnot, and they are absolutely correct.

The boys then asked me what I studied, and upon learning I was in law school, became impressed that I was going to become "a cop."