Teeth, Love, and Growing Up

Hello EN502!  The past month has been a whirlwind in the best way. I've spent my time keeled over laughing with my high school friends over how bad I am at Mario Kart, watching the sun set over the Pacific Ocean with my best friend Gabi (who stares at the horizon with a statistic-defying intent to witness a rare phenomenon known as the "green flash"), driving an hour up the coast with my mom just to get ice cream, trying on salwar kameezes in Little India for the first time, and passing days sprawled out on my floor editing law school essays. Tomorrow, I'll spend Thanksgiving at Gabi's house for the ninth year (immigrant families do it better!), and next week, I'll celebrate my twenty-second birthday with her and our two other best friends; then, I'll pack up all of my belongings (the important ones, anyway) to ship back to Boston for the third time, since I'm starting a new job early next year.  I always knew the months I spent quietly wandering the b...

 Dear EN502,      I spent the last two weeks of October in China. The purpose of this trip was to see family -- five cities in twelve days. I used to spend every summer visiting my family, but as I got older and busier, the trips became less and less, and then Covid happened and I haven’t been back.      In the five years removed from my family and my culture, I didn’t know what to expect from my trip. Once I got back, my friends asked me if I experienced any culture shock, and here is my answer:      Going back to China was like being fluent in a language I thought I’d forgotten, except it isn’t just the language, it’s everything: crossing the street and dodging bikes, cars, and scooters without fear, pointing to a menu and paying without needing to say a word, thinking to myself, oh, I remember, this is a part of me, it’s always been a part of me.       For the first time in five years, I could walk the streets at n...