This morning, I woke up crying. It is Asian American Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander Heritage Month, and I am facilitating two discussions (one tonight and one on May 31) related to Asian Americans in educational and literacies spaces. Introducing more people to and centering the voices of Asian Americans in education is at the core […]
Month: May 2022
Connecting through Grief
I would never wish grief upon anyone. Having been well acquainted with grief for the great majority of my life (introduction at 7 losing my maternal grandmother who raised me, with a a crash course in acute grief at 16 after losing my mother suddenly, and being close to death and loss many times since), […]
Legacies and Layers of Love
I am still carrying a lot. It’s been one of the hardest Mays on record (which is saying something since I didn’t even run a half marathon or birth a child this May). For the last two weeks, I’ve woken up on Monday & Tuesday convinced that it’s the start of a weekend and disappointed […]
Legacies and Layers of Loss
I have thousands of pictures of my mother’s life in Taiwan, and the beginning of her life in the United States. But there are only a few faces that I recognizes. There are only a few places that (I think) I can identify. I cannot read the writing, my mother’s handwriting in Chinese characters, that […]
Coming Home, Finding Community : My Spring 2022 EDSE 457 Final Reflection Photo Essay
At the end of each teaching semester, I have made it a practice to complete a final reflection on the semester. This is the final assignment in the literacies in secondary schools courses I teach. This semester, instead of a traditional 3-5 pp. reflection, I asked students to do a photo-essay after hearing about this […]
What is the Cost of Pushing Through?
It’s my little girl’s 7th birthday. She is amazing. She is light and laughter, love and joy. She is silly and kind, self-expressed and brilliant. She is a gift. 7 years ago, when she came into this world, I was crying. In those moments of birthing her, I felt perhaps most acutely the loss of […]
It’s Complicated
It’s Mother’s Day. It’s my 27th Mother’s Day without my mother. It’s my 17th Mother’s Day as a mother, my 16th as a biological mother. 7 years ago on this day, I was on the eve of having my youngest child. Today, there is much joy. And I am on the edge of tears. It’s […]
Transitions
Sometimes there is not a right or wrong answer. Sometimes every choice you make has consequences, good or bad, for people you deeply care about, yourself included. And that is hard. Sometimes important journeys come to an end to make room for new journeys to begin. Sometimes those journeys are filled with people you adore, […]
Full & Empty
I have been on a very long journey of accepting my humanity and giving myself grace when I make mistakes. It is not easy. In the past week, I’ve been careless with my words twice and (albeit unintentionally) hurt two people who I think the world of. In both cases, I was too tired to […]