When I was a kid, my father told me exciting stories about his business trips to America. I was always exhilarated to listen to his stories and every night, I daydreamed of going to America. When I graduated from elementary school, my father gave me an English-Japanese dictionary. After a decade, I went to Stanford Graduate School of Business from ... Read More »
I was born two years before we left our home in Sydney to move to the unknown, Houston, Texas, USA. In Houston, life was like a TV show. Everything seemed as if we were in a sitcom where everything seemed right and in place. The only thing that seemed out of place were my parents. My mother, of Ukrainian and ... Read More »
In the midst of the Caribbean Sea sits an island, its volcanic peaks surrounded by lush vegetation speckled with houses. A young girl made her way to the river, a basket full of laundry balanced carefully on her head. Waiting for her was her grandmother, who was already washing her share of clothes in the rushing water. Both the girl ... Read More »
It was the year 1995; I was 27, young and hungry for adventure. I had graduated from college the year prior, and was living with my best friend and his sister in the town of Braunschweig, Germany. I spent my days either working, or playing field hockey. I’d been playing field hockey since I was 12 years old, and I ... Read More »
“My life was better.” My mother described her former life in the Philippines, reminiscing in all of the old memories she had of her childhood and young adulthood. My mother was born in 1980 and grew up in the crowded and vibrant city of Cavite in the Philippines. In this city, she lived a standard yet fun and easy-going life ... Read More »
Imagine being raised in a country where you are constantly being monitored and having constant worries 24 hours a day. My Dad was born in Saigon, Vietnam. His life was not the most ideal lifestyle because of his family worries about not having food on the table every day. He lived in a police state and the police were pretty ... Read More »
My Mother was born in Shanghai, China. Her childhood was not a particularly good one, at least by American standards, but in China children were taught to be modest and not complain about what they got. My mother lived in a small house with several siblings, cousins, aunts, and uncles. Their house was part of a complex, with multiple other ... Read More »
While growing up in Turkey, the obvious pressing issue concerning Haluk Konuk was that he was not born into a socioeconomically well-off family. He always had to move around with his mother and older sister to live with various other family members in Istanbul. Basic necessities were hard to come by as he even recalled that “eating meat was like ... Read More »
Jacqui can still remember when her brother Mark came home one day in June 1976 and told her parents that South Africa had no future and that the family should leave together. Jacqui was 8 at the time, but Mark was ten years older and had recently entered into the police force due to South Africa’s compulsory military service. It ... Read More »
Cham Yean grew up in a poor family in the small country of Cambodia in the 1960s and 70s. During this time, Cambodia was in the midst of a civil war, and bombs would drop frequently, without warning, and kill many people. Because of this, Cham had to live her daily life amidst the fear of whether she would make ... Read More »