Day 355

Confession: As a child, I was stripped of my heritage, so I became hyper-curious of all the diversity around me.

I had white friends. I had darker friends. I remember sitting in the bath alone as a little kid, watching the water run from the tap, and realizing there are many different kinds of darker-than-white friends. My young mind had only seen one or the other, like blue eyes or brown eyes. It overwhelmed me, like the first time I read a book on my own.

I’m grateful I have so many stories.

One of my first crushes was a very blonde boy who moved back to Australia, and he sent me a postcard with a Koala on it. I don’t remember his name.

My first “boyfriend” was Sikh. We pretended to play Dog and Fire Hydrant where we’d take turns lifting our leg to mime-pee on each other. We got in a lot of trouble and I think they called my Mom (or threatened to).

There was a year where I was in with the Korean Girls. I had the cute pens and notebooks, and we’d use them to teach me how to read and write Korean. I didn’t do very well.

Later I found a best friend in a Filipina dancer, who helped me learn all the moves to High-School Musical, and a Mormon girl who was so good at track and field but she purposely let me beat her in a public race.

A couple years later I met a girl who became a very close friend and properly introduced me to manga, anime, logic and her mother’s Mandarin cuisine.

In highschool I was a loner but still branched out a lot.

As an adult, I’ve had connections—social, professional and romantic—with so many interesting and unique people that I never get bored of it. Even though it can suck sometimes…shout out to my gurl who got deported back to Europe.

Sound of the day: Onra – Like The Seasons https://youtu.be/1et-W94nDTU?si=I79G7b_ESlWW5FWD