(un)apologetic

this morning i made myself a hot coffee, something i rarely do.  i fill a small metal tea infuser with coffee grounds. i place it in a repurposed glass queso jar.  i boil some water in a pot on the stove, and pour it over the infuser. i loosely close the lid and let the coffee steep. it's sitting on my desk right now, in between myself and my keyboard. i take my first few sips. the scent of a fresh, warm, black cup of coffee wafts up to my nose. the sun shines through the window at just the right angle. and suddenly, i'm hit with all of these memories.  because drinking hot coffee happens on rare occasion for me, each time i do is linked to a memory or a feeling. early morning road trips gas station stops mcdonalds breakfast before i was the coffee drinker hotel breakfast waking up to a house filled with cousins, aunts, and uncles the living room floor lined with blankets and pillows getting my "free" cup of coffee on my early morning flight to a conference (before i

Today I asked my mother, "Mommy, back in the day when you were little and you lived in Lao, if you had a problem in your village, did you call the police?" She said, "No," in a tone similar to when you say "Of course not". Me: "What did you do to fix the problem then?" Mommy: "We would call our elders together to talk about it. Or call our Village Leader to mediate." Me: "At the end of the day, after talking it out, did people walk away feeling like the issue was resolved?" Mommy: "Yeah," she said in a tone that meant, "Of course". We talked about how the police in Laos do not resolve issues. They only lie and steal resources from people. We talked about how the police in the US only inflict violence. In the US we can even call the police to inflict violence on others on our behalf. My mother lived in Laos a short 31 years ago. Not that long ago, she was experiencing community

When I look back at 2020's Lao New Year family pic I'm always gonna remember this year 😂🙄

In one of my classes, we were asked to write an autobiographical statement about our experiences with curriculum as K-12 students. The prompt asked, "In this brief statement, you will discuss one or two of your own formative experiences with curriculum, and how these have affected your identity, beliefs, interests, or goals". It was hard to remember some of the details, as it was a while ago that I was in school. I wanted to share some of the things that I have written for class, so here is my autobiographical statement.

a few weeks ago, my sisters and i had the opportunity to visit a brick & mortar Lao restaurant in downtown Greensboro, NC, called Lao Restaurant + Bar. 

cw: sadness, jail, oppression it's graduation season.