Dear Readers, For 10 years, starting in 2008, I blogged nearly every week. I kept at it because writing to you transformed my life. You showed up and let me babble until I could see the past and present more clearly. Then in 2018, I disappeared from this space. My last post was about the need to recover from childhood …
How to drive from NY to LA in 5 days
We were two women on our first cross-country road trip. We did it — we logged nearly 3,000 miles, just my daughter Gabi and me. The whole adventure felt so wildly American, spontaneous and independent. So here I am, with a blog post on how to drive from NY to LA in 5 days. Gabi mapped out a simple, direct …
Top 10 issues for Asian Americans in the workplace
There’s a new survey out about being of Asian or Pacific heritage in the American workplace. And people, it’s stressful. But the good news is that we’re talking more about the pressures, and looking for ways to deal with the top 10 issues for Asian Americans in the workplace. The latest findings were commissioned by Asia Society, the Park Avenue-based …
Being the mother of a college graduate
Here’s my big news: I’ve become the proud mother of a college graduate! And I’m also sort of speechless. Wow. What do I do now? During these past four years. I watched Gabi explore her passions, purpose and power. It was hard for me to let her make her own choices (but I learned). She graduated with honors, too — …
How childhood shapes our relationship with money
The homework was to bring in a dollar. Now, my creative writing students sat around the big classroom table. Each of them held a George Washington in their hands. “Okay, rip it in half,” I said. What happened next was so powerful. They were about to discover how childhood shapes our relationship with money. For a few long seconds, this class …
What it means to be girls of color: “Bright Futures 2016”
I just healed by sharing personal heartbreak on race issues. The experience chiseled me out of my emotional armor, the fake-confidence that protected me from acting like a lonely, yellow outsider. Maybe I can finally chase away the sense of otherness for a healthier, more satisfying option: wholeness as an American woman of color. Miracles like this happen when people …