Prologue

I was born in Manhattan, New York. I had a blue birthmark on my butt. Korean babies have a blue mark on one butt cheek because our ancestors came from Mongolia. Apparently, it's a Mongolian thing. Eventually, this mark faded but, I have a birthmark on my chin that will not fade.

I grew up for a bit in New York. My mom told me that my days consisted of being pushed in a double stroller with my brother to all the playgrounds in Central Park. Even on rainy and cold days. She'd just throw this plastic tarp on us and walk all the way down the avenues. I still enjoy playgrounds.

I grew up a bit more in Fort Lee. There, I attended preschool and learned that I could buy friends by folding origami friends. We learn capitalism at an early age. Afterwards, I moved into the suburban town in central New Jersey. This would become my home for the next fifteen years. This town housed the school district that would come in first for many national math and science competitions. My friends raced to finish all the required courses so they could get started on college ones. Our high school football team frequently lost homecoming games. At the football games, my history teacher would shout, "Pirates pirates, fight fight fight! Three-fourths Asian and one-fourth White!"

This is where I grew up. A safe little bubble where the most extreme event was a troubled kid running away from home. I felt ignorant and naive as soon as I left my hometown. Maybe it was because I never personally knew the kids who smoked weed in the woods across the street. Everyone probably wasn't as ignorant as me.

Now that we're in college, what I considered outside problems introduced themselves to me. Those same friends from high school fought with depression, abusive relationships and suicide attempts. My world became a lot bigger.

I think now is a time to find my own person. Luckily, I've had wonderful adult figures to guide me. My immigrant parents cultivated an ambition to aim for an even better and more powerful life even though I worry sometimes that I don't the ability or willpower to achieve it. How can I compare to two people who left behind everything they knew and flew to an unknown country with just two bags of clothes? For a while, they used a cardboard ramen box for a kitchen table. And they somehow made it to here. How do I live up to that?