6. Harp Seals 2026

  A photo of me and my father  Behind my family’s story is my father’s decision to leave Taiwan and start a new life in America chasing the American dream. After graduating from high school, he enlisted in the military to fulfill his mandatory two years of military service in Taiwan. Once he completed his service, he took a chance and pursued new opportunities in the United States.  Leaving Taiwan meant leaving behind his family, friends, and everything he was familiar with growing up. Having to leave his parents at such a young age and moving thousands of miles away from home was not an easy decision. Coming to America meant starting over, and learning a new language. One of the biggest challenges of moving to America was learning and communicating in English as my father was used to speaking Mandarin and being surrounded by Taiwanese culture. Since he came to America to study, English was especially important in his everyday life, although he struggled learning it...

A rough depiction of the Grandpa.  To the Grandpa I saw at Sujus, I first observed you walk in gently as I waited for my pistachio frappe to be made, seeing your legs, probably frail from age, lift and step forward to the counter. I noticed your slow movements to cut through the line that accumulated as students rushed over from school, and I watched you pull out what looked like to be a hearing aid, only finding out later that it was actually glasses that you placed upon your face, only appearing to be a hearing aid from the gadget on the back of the temple tips on the frame that secured the glasses frame onto your ears. Maybe it was my preconceptions of the elderly that led me to believe, at first, that you needed hearing aids. In retrospect, there was no reason for you to have hearing aids on to read from the menu panels above the cafeteria machines. When I saw your legs struggling to move, I didn’t consider the past you had, the possible life experiences that you suffered or en...