“When I was younger, I didn’t really know what I wanted to do, and then my sister got me into music. I like to sing. I sing anything, actually, anything that I like, but I hate country or yodeling. It makes me cringe, it just makes me cringe. Basically all my hobbies came from my sister because she inspires me to draw, dance, and sing. Academic wise I struggle a lot so I do a lot of artistic and musical things. I guess my artisticness makes up for my academics.

I like to color, color in general it doesn’t have to be in a book. I just like the colors and I like to mess with them especially when I paint. When I’m feeling stressed out or when I’m feeling a bit down, art is a way for me to cope through things especially with school:  it stresses me a lot. A lot of people are really really annoying and art just makes me calm down. 

I speak two languages. I speak English and Korean at home and I’m learning Spanish at school. I’m in Spanish 3 which is kinda stressful and my teacher talks in all Spanish and I’m like, ‘I don’t know what she’s saying.’

My parents are really supportive of me, and I had my sister. She used to help me a lot, but now that she’s in college, I have to do things on my own. 

I love [my culture]. When I was in kindergarten, I would be so embarrassed for having this unique culture that’s completely different but now that makes me unique. I feel like I have more perspective of things because I also have another culture additionally with American culture. I can see both perspectives.

This year I felt a lot of racism. It was not intentional but you can feel it. They try to make you feel as equal as other students but then you can kinda feel there’s a difference especially with my friends.We get treated differently. [Sometimes people] give me their homework, and I’m like I don’t know any of this. I’m not smart. I don’t know a lot of things, that’s why we’re at school. I’m here to learn not do your homework. 

I’m meeting new people this year. I feel like there’s a bit of difference between me and how I’m treated with other people. It’s whatever, I’m used to it anyways. And I know how to deal with it because it’s not even a big deal anymore, it doesn’t matter if people are racist or not. This is who I am if they don’t like it then they don’t like it and they can’t change anything about it 

The hardest part, it happened this year, I lost a cousin of mine. She used to help me a lot actually. Especially how I feel about my culture right now. She made me and my sister feel proud of who we were and what race we were. That was the hardest part instead. It feels like a specific part of me is lost.”

Interview and Photo by: Emma Wilson