'23 Reflections
Letter to my freshman self
Dear freshman Leela,
Four years ago, there was so much unknown. When I think of you (us?) standing on the stoop in Brooklyn, surrounded by all your earthly possessions, waiting for Dad to pull the car around to drive to Baltimore for orientation, I wish I could give you a hug.
Changing my idea of homesickness
“You are like a ball of constant stress.”
I remember this line spoken to me during the beginning of my freshman year. At the time, I was still a Peabody Institute voice student, and I was in one of my earliest studio lessons. While nervously singing an art song learned hastily the night before, my legs kept shaking and my head could not keep still.
Dear junior-year Charlene, you can’t write yourself out of your past
Content warning: The following article includes topics some readers may find triggering, including sexual assault.
Back home in Taiwan, my family likes to joke that I am an ai ku gui: a crying ghost.