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Six Stills, A Memoir
The following pages are excerpts of the first and fifth section from my memoir project for my Milton course. Using Milton’s writings as a guide, I analyze the “stills” of my relationship with my father, faith, and previous romantic relationships. I. “Muddy Pool” of the Past Stills I didn’t know how much I needed John Milton until now. My father has always been the patriarch looming over our family—commanding respect even though he never extended the same to his wife or children. He was a Buddhist but converted to Christianity when I was seven. His conversion transformed him, not in a positive light, but one that buries him in fear…
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Language: Ableism in Words
Growing up in my Taiwanese American household, I never knew the official Mandarin word for disability. When my family members were upset or were referring to a disabled person, they would say Zhi zhang, 智障, meaning “retarded” or someone with a low intelligence quotient, and they would also use the word Wen-ti, 問題, meaning problem. During family conversations, I would hear others refer to a disabled person as the person with a Wen-ti. I’ve lost most of my Mandarin; I can still understand my parents when they speak it, but I am unable to speak it fluently. Mandarin and English are blended in my family: my mother speaks Mandarin; my…
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“Teeth,” A Narrative
The following memoir piece titled, “Teeth,” is an excerpt from my final project, Breaking the Silence Behind the Doors of my Family and Body: Wearing Words, for my Disability Narratives course. Teeth My heart thumps and pounds just like an intruder breaking down the door to steal the jewels inside, and my hands shake out of my control—it is like some stranger has detached my own hands and reattached unwanted hands onto my arms—almost a Frankenstein’s creature type of reattachment—and I cannot seem to string words together to speak coherent sentences because my mind is clouded with panic, and I have no control over my body. Panic rushes in…
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Art of Handwriting
My relationship to handwriting has transformed and grown alongside me. One of my earliest memories of handwriting was when I was in first grade. My teacher asked everyone to hold the infamous Ticonderoga #2 pencil, and she walked around the room checking how we each held our pencil. For every student that was holding a pencil incorrectly, she gave them a pencil grip object. As she neared my desk, my heart was beating quickly in fear, and next thing I knew, she dropped a grip on my desk. My face burned red with shame. I also saw the look of embarrassment in the faces of others who were told that…
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A Phở Love Story Book Review
Loan Le’s YA romance novel A Phở Love Story is a contemporary Romeo and Juliet retelling with Vietnamese American characters: Bảo Nguyễn and Linh Mai. The chapters alternate between Bảo and Linh’s focalizations. I typically enjoy alternating perspectives; however, I did get perplexed at times because the writing for both characters was almost identical. Linh and Bảo are quite similar because of the way they were raised up: working at their parents’ Vietnamese restaurants and navigating through their own dreams and the familial expectations pressed upon them. I wonder how the book would look like if the two characters were more distinct and contrasting because then it would further differentiate…
