HoDC: Humans of Davidson College is a series started by HerCampus Davidson to profile members of the community and to learn more about their stories.
“So my grandmother. Her mom had arranged a marriage for her up with this man, but my grandmother didn’t want to marry him. So she walked the long way home, so that she wouldn’t get home in time for the meeting. But her sister was there, so she ended up having to marry him instead. Every time I think about this story, I always seem to care more about the path that she took. Like did she have to walk through a stream? Were there rocks across her way? And I think it’s because I can’t properly fathom how someone just two generations ago in my family would have had to make a decision like that, take the short way home and get married, or take a detour and let your sister take your place. I think my mom told me that story when I was 16, for some project for class and I was like ‘Mom! How did I not know this? It’s funny how I can’t even remember what the assignment was now, but I can remember the story about my grandmother and the rocks and streams I’ve imagined in her path instead of the emotional turmoil of the decision. It’s nice that the assignment helped me learn something. I don’t give high school enough credit.”
“How do I feel about being a third culture kid? Honestly, I feel it’s pretty funny. I’ll be sitting there eating mashed potatoes and gravy with chopsticks, and I’ll have to take a moment to laugh at myself. It’s not even intuitive, is it? Why the hell would you use sticks to eat potato paste? But it’s what I grabbed from the kitchen.”
“Oh, I feel very strongly about Frankie Muniz. In general, I feel very strongly about anything that encapsulates the unadulterated angst of the early 2000s. My family only lived in the States for a year, in 2003, but we watched a lot of Malcolm in the Middle together during that year. So, like Frankie Muniz and American Idiot make up 80% of my understanding of American culture. Davidson did not live up to my expectations.”