By Mimi Lam
FROM: Cultural Weekly

When I first volunteered for the Sims Library of Poetry, I did not expect a physical manifestation of myself–unfinished, still growing, pursuing a dream. Like the library, I was in the process of transformation.

I reflect back to the moments of tension in my life that pulled me in opposing directions. I remember being called into a room full of my relatives on my mother’s side. Most of them have immigrated to the United States from Vietnam when they were in elementary school to high school. They knew the struggle of learning English as a second language and surviving in an environment in which they started from nothing.

I, on the other hand, grew up poor, but also with the American cultural mindset of following one’s passion. I saw books, television, and film as a means to escape my family’s overbearing control over my life. From an early age, my family enforced that I focus on academics and receive good grades. My parents didn’t care what I was learning in school, except that I get straight A’s, a stereotypical representation of strict, Asian parents.

However, I wouldn’t say that stereotype is entirely accurate. My parents both worked six days a week, and their days off were used to perform chores that couldn’t be done during their work days. They simply didn’t have time to know about my business, and they also didn’t understand it. My father quit helping me with homework after third grade multiplication. I got used to that feeling of independence and self-reliance when I was young. Read Rest of Article Here