Living Under the Sun
- J Son
- Los Angeles
- KOREA, REPUBLIC OF
- 52
After finishing his education at the top university in Taiwan (National Taiwan University), my father came to America for graduate school in 1983. He came for a better education, more opportunities, and to get away from the political conflict between Taiwan and China. In 1986, he finished with a masters in architecture from Washington State University and went to Texas to visit my pregnant mother, where she was working at the time. She was working there as an employee in a fashion design company. Subsequently, I was born in Texas and they decided to move to California two weeks after for the job he found.
He found a job in an architecture firm in Downtown Los Angeles. My mom raised me while he worked his job in the architecture company. His life is a voyage. Gliding from an island to a larger island, A pigment among the collage of the American Dream. Finding his love in Washington DC, Being as artistic as he was. Drawing houses for his future family. After graduation, he found his wife and soon to be child in Texan country. Two weeks after my birth, they found their hopes in California. Downtown LA, That's where they stayed, keeping it real hard working. He worked, she worked, the child grew. That's how he came to be and how I became me.
After living in Downtown LA for about 2 years, I moved to Arcadia with my family. When I was 3 years old, my little brother was born and that brought new meaning to the tone of the family structure. I lived there since then, going through pre-school to high school in the same school district. I went from Holly Avenue Elementary School to First Ave Middle School to Arcadia High School. I picked up many experiences during this time, although in my mind I did feel a lot of it was through personal revelations as opposed to ones given through social relationships. I graduated in 2004 and started college at UC Riverside. As a child I was happy. Together with my mother and father Beautiful days washing away No worries, just being, not seeing, who I was Learning what there was to learn without concern
As I grew older, it became more apparent there was more than happiness An understanding of sadness, madness came to me I was a minor in a majority with definitive limitation A minority in a majority of constructed imagery When that is a mere creation of mass consumption We eat and die at the same table, live the same fable So when I ask myself who am I, it's more so who is around me, That perplexes, because I am the same as any member of the genome imprinted on this earth. Still asking for the power to unearth that gift from inside to find the pride in being eternally a footstone in which I stood for myself. And in essence everyone else.