Joan Is Okay

by Weike Wang

To chat is to liáo tiān, or literally “to gab about the sky.”

Moving into a shared office has taught me that some people required more encouragement, water, and sun. Some people were just like plants.

There were lots of people like me, tucked away in schools and office buildings. People who had been standardized, a standard provider who provides standardized care.

Chuàng (创): to create something that never was, to forge a new path, to innovate, to achieve, to strive; anything worth doing requires a person to chuàng.

Chuàng is supposed to feel like that—a mix of danger and joy, pleasure and pain.