Through my family I’m ethnic Taiwanese, but I’m called Chinese (or the box Asian/Pacific Islander on forms), although I look Korean–enough that Koreans ask if I am. I’m 100% born and raised in Texas but my (non) accent isn’t Southern enough. Because I’m not “white” people ask where I’m from originally as in what country I’m from. Apparently I act “white,” although I thought I just acted like an American–my nationality, as Europeans have qualified me as “so American” or “so Asian” when it comes to certain things.

For what it’s worth, I hope you’re happy. I hope you look back on me with fondness. Maybe there’s a part of me that wants you to want me now… but that’s a bit petty and useless. It would be enough if we could look at each other and smile, and mean it.

Truth be told, I dislike small talk, but it really is a great icebreaker. Often times I bump into a coworker in our kitchen area with his aromatic lunches. A very sweet, adorable man, we’ve shared quick conversations around the microwave. We’re both from hot climates, he from Jamaica and myself from Texas.

There was a week where he made curry and I realized I haven’t had curry in a very long time, nor have I ever made it properly. (I’ve tried a long time ago in Austin, but it didn’t taste the way it should.) He explained to me the kind he makes, and I shared with him my fondness of Indian curries but dislikes of Thai curries (because of the coconut milk I cannot stomach).

Today he swung by my side of the office with a jar of Jamaican curry sauce he bought for me, with the directions right on the jar he says, so I can make it easily at home.

It’s the little things like this that illustrate how great New Yorkers are, and now I can’t wait to make Jamaican curry.

“Great minds have purposes, others have wishes.” –Washington Irving

“It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.”  –Epictetus

When I talk about letting go of things, I don’t mean letting go for its own sake, but letting go of something to make room for something better. What I want for myself and everyone else is not to have nothing, but to have only the best.

And when I talk about letting go of things, I don’t mean removing them completely from your life, but relaxing your grip on them–in the way that if you were clutching a bird in your hand, you might relax your grip on it until it’s standing on your palm, entirely free to fly away if it wishes, but not necessarily standing any farther away from you than it was before.

- “Let Go” by Aurora Bell Ou