Personal essays from other Asian Americans just like you.
It’s Saturday morning on move-in day for my first year of college. All my things are crammed into the trunk, under the seats, and in front of my siblings’ feet. The tank is filled with gas for the long ride. Everyone is excited and my dad turns the radio to his...
Lost in a sea of wavy blonde locks and blue irises, my straight black hair and brown eyes set me apart from classmates, teachers and family alike. For as long as I can remember, I knew that I was different. Given that I am a transracial Chinese adoptee raised by a...
Am I like the overseer of a plantation? The question comes to mind during a masked walk in Golden Gate Park, out of the drumbeat of Ahmaud Arbery … George Floyd … Breonna Taylor … Black Lives Matter … what can we do? From these senseless killings, to the wildfires...
Even without the coronavirus taking 2020 hostage, this year had already been anything but normal for me. In late February, my grandmother, Misao Kobayashi-Henry, passed away peacefully in her sleep at age 89. It still doesn’t feel real, and because of how strangely...
The following article is an op-ed that expresses the writer’s personal opinions. It is transgressive for a woman to want. We are told by society that we can only want a husband and children — and occasionally a career (but never at the expense of the husband and...
“Wow, Amy, you got really tan.” Two people I love told me this recently. They implied very different things. For my white fiancé, it’s admiration for my four+ years of commitment to swim, bike or run six days a week, which has intensified as I train...
They call us the model minority… and I get it. I get that when my parents arrived, they did so silently. They cleaned toilets and mopped floors without question. They told their kids to excel in school, but to never brag about it. Raised us to be good citizens; we...
Excuse me while I show my age, but whenever I think of friendship, I cannot help but think of Zack Attack from the show “Saved by the Bell” and their song “Friends Forever.” How could I not with iconic lines like, “Through it all, hangin’ tough, we’ll stay side by...
My entire life has been about college—and not because I had overbearing parents or overwhelming school pressure, but because I set my own ambitions to a glorified view of what I thought college would be. Growing up, I couldn’t wait for the college social scene. I’ve...