Jeremy Lin is riding a well-deserved wave of goodwill and adulation. After being undrafted and waived by not one, but two, NBA teams last year–the 23-year-old point guard for the New York Knicks has become the sport’s latest sensation. And Asian Americans are loving it. Each time Lin shows off his skills on the basketball court or does an on-air interview where—surprise!–he has no accent, he helps Asian Americans get one step closer to being accepted as “real” Americans.
Crouching down in my seat so that he wouldn’t see me cry, I choked out loud sobs that surprised me. I thought about the first time we saw him in Korea, when he was still a baby. I cried for all the losses he’d already suffered before his first bithday. I cried for the years that we had together where the days, at times, seemed tortuously long, but now were flashing by at a speed that startled me. I thought about what it would be like when he went off to college. And I hoped that I wouldn’t die before he grew up to be a man.
Happy 2012 everyone! I just wanted to let you all know that I have a public Facebook fan page (https://www.facebook.com/jaehakim.journalist). If you get a chance, stop on by and “like” it. You’ll automatically be entered to win a copy of the complete third season of the series IN TREATMENT on DVD. I’ll pick the winner (at random) on Jan. 31, 2012.
A couple years ago, actress Katherine Heigl and her husband Josh Kelley adopted an adorable little baby girl from South Korea. No one would deny that they didn’t deserve to be parents. But what some folks—myself included—found curious was that they had been married for less than two years when they were matched with their child.
I never met Aaron Hawkins, but I knew that he occasionally mentioned me on his blog, Uppity-Negro.com. Once, the fansite title on his blog was my name. Granted, this was during a period when he was doing this to be cheeky more than anything else. Hawkins was one of the first African-American bloggers. He was smart, thought-provoking and funny. I used to pop over to his blog every so often to see what he was up to.
November is National Adoption Month. There are more than 143 million orphans worldwide. My son, Kyle was one of them. Please consider adopting or fostering a child; or donating to an orphanage.
Sung-Bong Choi, 22, didn’t end up winning “Korea’s Got Talent,” but he won over thousands of fans with his talent and courage. Orphaned at the age of 3 and beaten at the orphanage he was left at, he ran away and lived on the streets.
My toddler likes this K-pop boy band called Boyfriend. He insists on watching the video for the group’s signature song, “Boyfriend,” at least a zillion times a day and is getting pretty good at imitating the dance moves.
What I do know is this. I miss my free time. At times I even miss working full-time. But what I really miss is the past that I had with Kyle but didn’t fully appreciate because I was trying to figure out how to be a good parent. I was so busy planning out his future that I didn’t really relish each day as we were living it.
Our father’s goal in bringing his family from South Korea to the United States was to ensure that his children would receive a good education. He and our mother instilled in us the idea that studying hard would be our ticket to having a better life than they had. And they were right. But while the three of us are well educated, we lack our father’s endless thirst for knowledge.
