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2 sisters( toni, 12 years old and jessica,
21 years old), mom, dad, moms home on medina ln, dads home
on shasta spring ... in cupertino, 2 years at monta vista
public high school, 2 years at kent boarding school in connecticut,
a few years in hong kong, a few years in LA, born in new jersey,
months in toronto, months in japan, months in europe -france,
germany, england, denmark, days in thailand, singapore, malaysia,
bahamas, half shanghainese, 4 years of stanford product design,
3 years kdphi, many years volunteering, 8 cousins, 4 grandparents,
4 aunts, 2 uncles ... and me
I
am the opposite sides of many things.
I am a fragrant banana with a bright Asian-yellow
peel covering an Americanized pulp. I am Chinese and I am
American. I love eating frog legs, duck gizzards, and shark's
fin. I love being able to converse with my grandmother because
I can speak Cantonese. I enjoy spending Sunday mornings watering
the flowers and picking the apples from my backyard.
I am the translucent lake splashing with
activity in the summer time that is frozen and sleeping in
the winter. I have splashed in the thrill and excitement of
bustling Hong Kong and I have lived a sleepily quiet and peaceful
life in little town Kent.
I know what it feels like to be just one
tiny leaf among thousands in a towering evergreen tree that
gets the rare chance to fall into a new life from a change
of wind. I was a little leaf among more than a thousand other
students at a public high school. Then I received a chance
to experience independence and individuality in a small private
boarding school.
I am the moon - reflecting light while standing
sturdily alone, but free to revolve in pursuit of the sun's
light. I have risen to be a strong, independent, and sturdy
adult able to take initiative and care for a home while lighting
the way for my younger sisters as a role model. However, I
am free, audacious, and youthful when in search for the light
of guidance and knowledge.
Like a fresh, young leaf, I embody calculated
structure and natural form. The utility and determination
of an engineering repretoire show in the structure of my visible
veins and curriculum vitae. I embody the elegance of an art
piece in the simple and natural forms i can create.
I am a waterlily still sitting calmly on
the water after being touched by splattering rain and warmed
by the sun's rays. I have been weathered by different and
difficult family experiences - my parents' separation and
divorce, having only my father, living with only my mother,
and staying for one year with unrelated guardians. All these
memories have made me bloom more firmly and radiantly.
Like the Chinese yin and yang, I am a symbol
of equilibrium. Being a Chinese in America, having lived on
the east coast, the west coast, and overseas, studying in
a big public school and a small boarding school, carrying
out adult responsibilities while still growing, playing classical
piano and listening to rock, studying hard but having fun,
I constantly have to adapt to changes and learn to balance
these opposing elements. Every time my environment changes,
I learn many things about myself through the way I deal with
it. My own process of maturing never ends. It undoubtedly
would have been easier to always stay in one place and live
one side of life, but these facets have completed me.
Like a tall determined bamboo tree, I am
ready to stay rooted in all that I have learned and experienced,
and continue to reach up towards new opportunities.
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