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I sighed. I missed Popsicle Grandpa. There was no one like that here. Here, everything had a price, even kindness.
As I walked, I gave the butterflies in my stomach their usual pep talk—It’s going to be okay. I’ll make friends, and if I don’t, I’ll borrow books from the library.
“We’re immigrants,” she said. “Our lives are never fair.”
“It means a mistake isn’t always a mistake,” he said. “Sometimes a mistake is actually an opportunity, but we just can’t see it right then and there. Do you know what I mean?”
I used to think being successful meant having enough to eat, but now that I was getting free lunch at school, I wondered if I should set my standards higher.
I put my head down at my desk, wondering if I looked more like the other kids in my class—if I had blond hair and blue eyes—then would it be okay that I sucked at math?
“You know what you are in English? You’re a bicycle, and the other kids are cars.”
“You know what you guys are?” I asked the weeklies and Lupe. “What?” “Top Tier friends,” I said. Hand in hand, we walked back to the motel.
sometimes, you have to take matters into your own hands. And you have to be creative to get what you want.
I wanted to shake him and say, You’re not getting it! That’s not what “free” means! Free means innocent until proven guilty, not guilty no matter how innocent.
There’s a saying in Chinese that goes “Never forget how much rice you eat.” It’s a reminder to stay humble, to stay real. Just because you have an important job doesn’t mean you’re better than everybody else. You still eat rice, like the rest of us.
It was the most incredible feeling ever, knowing that something I wrote actually changed someone’s life.
in China, girls are kind of like spare tires. It’s nice if you have one, but they’re not important.
I always thought I was the one who needed her, that I was the barnacle to her whale.
