More Fun Things I Found Whilst Cleaning

I found this old picture of me from a play I was in my sophomore year of college. I think I was miscast in my role in this play, as I was playing Ruth Younger [from A Raisin in the Sun], a middle-aged black housewife. Now, normally I am all for color-blind casting, unless the role is specifically meant for someone of a certain race. I think Ghandi should be played by an Indian man, Rosa Parks probably by a black lady (in a bit of nerdery I'm just going to say now that I also think Jake Gyllenhal was egregiously mis-cast as the prince of Persia, and I was gravely disappointed by the lack of Inuit, Polynesian and Asian representation in Avatar: the Last Airbender) Apparently I did a good job, though. At one point in the play I shouted at my sun, "Boy, hush yo' mouth," (that part was in the script) accompanied by a backhand slap (that part was improvised). Afterwards, I was approached by so many African-American ladies in the audience who shook my hand warmly and said, "You did such a good job! You slapped that boy just like you were a black mama!"

This is a collection of pictures that were given to me by one of my seven-year old students when I was in Seoul. I got a lot of gifts as a teacher in Korea, but this has to be one of my favorites. My second week teaching, I was approached shyly by one of my students, a little girl named Kyung Min. "Tea-sher," she said, "I have present for you." Immediately four of the other girls in class jumped from their desk and ran to where I was sitting. I gathered that they had all been talking about this gift from the way they were conferring with each other. "Open it, tea-sher, open it," they said, watching me closely for my reaction. Opening it, I found a collection of carefully cut out photos of Kim Hyun Joong, who I have an absurd, ridiculous, incurable crush on. I gasped. I laughed. I hugged all the girls around me. To this day, I am not sure how my Kyung Min knew about my crush, but I still stand by what I told her: "YES. YES. YES! Best present EVER."