Each person is more interesting than any one aspect of their identity too, and everyone owes it to themselves to experiment and discover themselves, instead of just assuming the identity placed upon them by their societies…
Read More“Where are you from?” Thrill and dread. That question we all prepare a thirty-second elevator pitch for…
Read MoreIt’s my favorite choice for our annual Christmas brunch at one of the hotels in Tokyo…
Read MoreAm I Korean or American? Am I more Korean or more American? Which side do I belong to? Who am I?—I kept asking until last night, the night of the TCK student organization meeting and the night that changed my perception of my own personal and cultural identity forever…
Read MoreOn the silted shores of that Kashmiri lake from my childhood - my shoes slowly ruining in the slush of snow, mud and plum blossoms - I stood beside the houseboat we were staying in (which once hosted Henry Kissinger). That was the month Indira Gandhi was voted out and my whole family got stuck in India.
Read MorePeople will say one nation or region is more friendly than another. I honestly can say I think that people are pretty much the same all over the world. So if you are an asshole in Baltimore, moving to another country won’t magically transform you into everyone’s hero...
Read MoreMy family and my blood are in Alaska. My heart will hold up north and I fool no one. But my also “family” exists as much to me down in Texas and California, Washington and Tokyo...
Read MoreMy passports have always been issued from abroad. In the 1980s my passports were changed to blue "Z" instead of the standard blue. I was treated like a second class citizen each time I “returned” to the US and travelling in my 20's through Europe with it in the Cold War was sheer hell on the Eastern side of the Iron Curtain...
Read MorePerhaps my sorry state tugged on this woman's strings of motherhood and allowed her to look upon me as just another uncomfortable human. There was a call to nurture and I allowed her to play mum for just the briefest of instances - so fast, if you weren't looking, you'd miss it.
Read More