Editors Note: This is the Second Installment of the NWN’s International Week Series.

Roaming the halls of Niles West, invested in the classroom and killing it on the court, this young gentleman carries himself in a certain manner that not many people can relate to. Regardless of what’s going on, family and friends come first.

Embracing his nationality, his family and his Assyrian culture is extremely important to senior basketball captain Odisho Audisho .

“It’s just family, all Assyrians are family. We come in a pact. Everybody knows Assyrians run deep,” Audisho said on how being Assyrian is being a part of something bigger.

Odisho loves being Assyrian, doing Assyrian things, and celebrating his Assyrian heritage with the ones around him. “I can feel a connection with any Assyrian person I meet,” he said.

“I eat Assyrian food, my parents talk to me in Assyrian, I hang out with a lot of other Assyrians, but being Assyrian isn’t any different than being American. It’s like being American while doing Assyrian things,” Audisho shared.

He celebrates Assyrian holiday’s, he practices Assyrian costumes, but his everyday life is as ‘Americanized’ as it gets.

“I do have my own ‘holiday’s’, if you will, but I feel as normal as any other person of a different nationality would as in being Assyrian makes you feel no different, it just gives off a vibe of family first instincts,” Audisho said.

Though Odisho believes in strict family-first customs, sometimes the ‘togetherness’ that Assyrians give off can be perceived the wrong way.

“I believe there are many stereotypes and wrong perceptions of Assyrians these days. I’m a good kid and I’m Assyrian, just because someone is Assyrian does not make them ‘bad’,” Audisho said.

“Just being Assyrian makes me proud. Meeting a new Assyrian, speaking of my cousins or close Assyrian friends, we always outnumber all other nationalities. Everyone’s always so proud of being Assyrian and it’s a great feeling to know you have so many people supporting you,” stated Audisho.

As many nationality come with their own excitement, a proud Assyrian knows the true meaning of family. Audisho feels as American as any one of his friends while he meanwhile enjoys a few minor differences in his way of hife. He loves being Assyrian, though it doesn’t change him in any major way. He lives his life as a normal teenage kid always knowing he has many ‘family members’ to always have his back.