Taking the Best of Both Worlds
Names have been changed. I was content using spoons and forks until 2nd grade, when my Korean aunt came to visit. My parents, my younger brother, my grandmother, other relatives, and I were eating yakisoba, a noodle stir-fry, at our kitchen table when my aunt noticed that I wasn’t using chopsticks like everyone else. “Hold […]
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Don’t Call Me Jeremy Lin
My team and I had just arrived at our away game, one of many we played in the New York-New Jersey area. We were in the locker room. “Hurry up and change. Be on the court in five minutes to warm up and stretch,” said our coach. My teammates and I quickly changed into our […]
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Big Lies and Great Expectations
I stared at the large 64 circled in red at the top of my test: one point from passing. I folded the paper in half and hurried out of class, too embarrassed to look my teacher in the eye. This was the third time in a row I had failed a test. “How did you […]
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Pride and Prejudice and ESL
I was careful not to fall as I slowly climbed up the wooden ladder to the dusty attic. The stuffy space smelled of damp socks and spoiled milk. In the dim light from the tiny attic window, I found the enormous cardboard box of books I was looking for. As a 3rd grader with a […]
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