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And with that, graduation has moved from the Boring category into Most Embarrassing.
The only Mandarin I grew up with was my mom asking me “Bian bian?” in public when I was little instead of saying “Do you have to poop?” so others wouldn’t understand.
Maybe I can be Cinderella. Just a different kind. One who isn’t after love because there’s more to life than that and I’m just eighteen. I’m after education and a better life for me and my mom.
“Not surprising for someone named intelligent and successful.”
The past always affects the future.
“A person should know what tea is their favorite. Otherwise, how do you know who you are?”
“They made me learn English with them. Their lessons were dumb, didn’t work.” I stifle a laugh. “But I Love Lucy and I Dream of Jeannie worked. Now, reality TV. Have you seen Love Island? So juicy!”
“Or maybe that’s precisely why he’s making you look. Maybe it took him a lifetime to learn how to cope, how to appreciate what’s important, and he’s trying to pass some of those lessons on to you, like how to find the beauty even when it seems impossible.”
It had just never occurred to me that you not only can’t choose how much family you have but who they are.
“Yong Ping and Wei Li fall in love in Taiwan.
“Lies. So many lies. No, this is the truth: Yong Ping stop by a lot because he want to see Wei Li. Wei Li want it to stop, so he lie, tell his family, don’t let Yong Ping in because he a thief. Steal everything from him.”
The hunt was a way for my grandfather to show me himself and pass on lessons like the past always affects the future and how to find the beauty in life.
“He once told me that if I got pregnant before marriage, I shouldn’t come home. That was the extent of the sex talk I got. And he meant it. So when it happened, I didn’t. And he let me go. I was only eighteen! He didn’t try to find me, didn’t try to help. Not until you were three years old. Three.
“My grandfather used to talk about Sun Moon Lake fondly. I’ve always wanted to come. He said it’s the perfect place to fall in love.”
“It’s nothing but a competition for you. You’re only interested when someone else is. It has nothing to do with me.”
Thanks to the TARPers and my own evolving experiences, I’m finally starting to realize that we all have different relationships with our culture. There is no “right” way to do it. Before, I thought the only way to be Asian was to be like Xander. But I’m Gemma. Gemma, who struggles with Mandarin but can still make a joke in it, who will never eat Cheetos with her fingers again, and who is still a work in progress as to how she feels about her roots. And that’s okay.
