Priya Natarajan - October 2022

Math Teacher, Portland Public Schools

Although she was born in India, Priya Natarajan has been living in the U.S. since she was 6, living in Chicago, West Virginia, Ohio, and Boston. She moved to Maine after she’d married, thinking it “a nice place to live and raise a family.” Her biggest challenge, looking back, was “finding my own place. Coming to terms with my own identity and connecting with people to support.” With most of the Indians she encountered being relatively new arrivals, she felt different — which she sees as “the greatest gift. It pushed me to become fully myself.” Priya has seen some things change in the 20 years she’s been living in Maine, including some micro-aggressions that once went unchallenged. “I’ve never felt uncomfortable. But now I do feel — wow! … People call me Mrs. N because it’s too hard to pronounce my name. Now I ask people: please learn it. Tie it to the why! I have relationships. I have power. I will try to use it to make my whole community better.”

It’s no surprise Priya’s advice is “keep learning!” In addition to books by Erica Lee and Cathy Park Hong’s Minor Feelings, she recommends the podcast Asian Enough and loves Mindy Kaling’s new Netflix show, Never Have I Ever: “Her story is very similar to mine. They speak my language!”