My Best Reads of 2021

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A few years ago I set an intention to get back to reading–and at the end of another year, I’m happy to report that I have successfully stuck to that commitment!

And even more recently, I dedicated myself to actively seeking out and spending more time reading books by and about underrepresented identities (in the world of fiction, that essentially means nonwhite identities; you can read why I did this here). And I’m so glad that I did, because every single book on this list is a result of that intention–and I likely would have missed out on these stellar reads if I was doing otherwise.

Part of the joy of reading is of course experiencing a story; but, as a natural storyteller myself, I’m aware that for me, the other part of the joy lies in sharing my reads with others. And that’s what inspired me to compile this list and present them to you here as a blog post–with hopes that you all will be inspired to check them out as well~

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My goal in this single short lifetime is to live as many lives as possible.

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My goal in this single short lifetime is to live as many lives as possible.

The older woman took her time approaching the counter, her gait a slow, measured shuffle. When she reached where I stood on the other side, she inquired about the restroom. While we have signs notating that ‘Restrooms are for customer use only’, I directed her to the back of the restaurant where they were located. However, she didn’t proceed on. Instead, she stared at me. After a few beats, she asked “You still getting them good shoes for free?”

Well. That was…unexpected.

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Your Anti-Racism Must Include Asian Americans

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Your Anti-Racism Must Include Asian Americans

This year, Black History Month and the Lunar New Year overlapped in the month of February. And while there is subsequently and rightfully a significant amount of narrative around uplifting Black voices, we don’t see anywhere near the same movement around Asian and Asian American voices, at any point of the year. I am only a single voice--one that doesn’t really have much of an audience honestly--but this month, I want to use my voice and my platform to uplift those of another group that faces racism, hate, marginalization and discrimination in the US and across the globe.

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'Why South Korea?' and Other Common Questions

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'Why South Korea?' and Other Common Questions

I started 2020 on one side of the world, and ended it on another. It felt like I was just getting around to fostering genuine and fulfilling connections in South Korea when I had to relocate back to the States. Because of this, I haven’t written about my time and experiences in Korea nearly as much as I thought I would. So with the closing of the year, I wanted to try to do a brief sweep over some commonly asked questions about my time over there, in case I never get around to writing about it again!

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My Steps For Decolonizing My Writing

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My Steps For Decolonizing My Writing

Previously, I wrote about how I recently came to realize how anti-blackness & white-centered narratives had infiltrated my storytelling and writing career (if you haven’t read it, you may want to click over to get the full background before diving into the rest).

So as promised, here are the steps I took/am taking to undo this mindset.

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Recognizing My Anti-Blackness As A Black Writer

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Recognizing My Anti-Blackness As A Black Writer

I am a writer. I mean that more in the life-calling sense, rather than the vocational sense. I wrote my first coherent story in the 2nd grade--a memory I vividly remember because of how my teacher responded. It was about a child who was stuck in a toy store and spent the night there alone. Everyone in my class had been assigned to write something on this prompt; but I had weaved a narrative with detail and depth that had apparently surpassed what was expected of a second-grader. My teacher was so shocked by the story I wrote that she went on to inform everyone from my mother to the principal. She even got me featured as a highlight in the school newsletter for it. It was honestly life-changing; before then, I remember feeling like the odd one out, even as early as kindergarten, because I didn’t feel like I had any talents. But from that incident onward, I finally found my gift.

However, about two years ago, another truly startling realization came to me:

That the characters in my fiction pieces were, and always have been, almost exclusively white.

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Life During COVID-19 in South Korea (Seoul)

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Life During COVID-19 in South Korea (Seoul)

For a while now I’ve resided in South Korea--thousands of miles away from my hometown in the southeastern United States. And while these two places usually do things in different ways (given cultural, linguistic and infrastructure differences), the way life seems to be comparing across these two countries has become especially deviant today, in mid-2020.

If you’ve consumed any form of media, you’ve probably heard South Korea floating through international news quite a bit this year. And it had nothing to do with k-dramas or BTS, and everything to do with COVID.

I’m gonna assume you already know most of the rundown, but I’ll also sum it up shortly: Christian cult caused a massive spike in the spread of cases in Feb 2020, government took big steps with testing and contact tracing. No lockdown, yet the country experienced an excellent reduction in cases and deaths in less than 12 weeks.

That gives kind of the bird’s-eye view of things, from the public health standpoint. But of course public health doesn’t exist in a bubble, separated from the rest of society. Thus in so many countries, lockdown and social distancing has also drastically changed the rules of social life as well.

So given the good marks of how the country managed the COVID crisis, what does daily and social life look like now in South Korea?

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Dear Fellow 20-Somethings: We Owe It To Ourselves To Fix Ourselves

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Dear Fellow 20-Somethings: We Owe It To Ourselves To Fix Ourselves

For some of us, it’s puzzling. Maybe you came from a relatively standard upbringing: two parents, suburban living, a more-or-less “average” life. And yet, somehow, you look in the mirror and see cracks in the person that you have become.

And for some of us, there may be clear episodes that ruptured your internal settings; perhaps some painful or traumatic experiences that you’ve forgotten about, pushed away, convinced yourself that it had no bearing on you, or carry with you every single day.

Regardless of how you may have arrived to this point, I am here to tell you: you are not alone. And you're not permanently damaged goods; you can undoubtedly mend those breaks in your being.

But I’ll also tell you up-front: it will take work. And it is up to you—no one else, only you—to do that work to fix yourself.

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QUARANTINE MUST: Celebrate how far you’ve come.

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These days, a lot of things are going wrong for a lot of people. I know I can definitely identify with this, as I face issues surrounding employment, housing, and visa status, among other things. So naturally, a lot of my energy and focus has been in trying to sort out how I’m going to navigate all of these unknowns in the near future.

But in one of the silent moments where my mind wasn’t thinking about eight things at once, a beautiful thought dawned on me:

I may not have any clue where I’m going from here, but damn, look how far I’ve come.

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About Wearing Masks: Some tips from my mask-wearing experiences in South Korea

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About Wearing Masks: Some tips from my mask-wearing experiences in South Korea

Since I know that even the thought of using face masks is rather novel to people out West, I wanted to make a post about it. Here I’ve compiled a short list of the guidelines that you should keep in mind when using masks, as well as some of my own tips from my extended experience with masks during my time in South Korea.

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