An acquaintance who’s pregnant is having a hard time, including being evicted. I told her she can stay with me for a while while she saves money. Hey boyfriend was trying to step out at first, and she wanted to let him at first. I encouraged her not to do so, not to let him go, not to try and pretend it didn’t matter. It totally matters.
Suddenly this guy’s done a 180, and he’s now unlocking parts of himself he didn’t know existed. I feel like I played a small role in that too, by encouraging her to not play nihilistic chicken with his childish instinct to run. They’re both in their 20s, and I’m in my 40s. I don’t have a family of my own, but damn it feels good to help out a little at the formation of a new one.
I was worried. The part of myself that doesn’t like to be involved in anything or take a stand on anything, that just likes to smoke pot and play video games, was complaining that I’d lose my sanctuary. But over the years I’ve learned to trust my abolish to handle the unknown, and just force myself forward. So I did that in this case, and now I get to help.
Stuff keeps breaking in my house. I hate fixing the stuff, but I always feel super proud when it’s done.
In the last month I replaced an electrical outlet that released its magic smoke when the electric griddle cord short circuited. I replaced the igniter in our gas oven. And just today I replaced the insinkerator garbage disposal that started leaking water under the sink.
my mom started teaching deaf kids at a school in my hometown. this school is mostly attended by kids from poor families and some from nearby villages. the funding of this school is very small, and not much is provided to help prepare classes. note that my mom never knew how to speak sign language but she was very determined to learn to to.
my mom also wasn’t pc-literate and was previously not keen on learning to use it but in order to excel (pun not intended) at her position she was required to learn to use word and other teaching tools on the computer.
so i helped her get started and showed her how to prepare her classes using images and she was quite a fast learner and resources online to learn sign language, but i was especially happy to find some amazing tools that had kid friendly animations which helped her teach them to write and speak sign language
something that really touched me is that one day, her work computer was malfunctioning so i had to visit her and fix it for her. when i walked in, her students didn’t recognize me so they asked her who i was, and when she told them i was her son who got her those learning tools they became ecstatic and signed how grateful they were to be able to meet me in real life
they’re mostly 8-14yo and were marginalized especially since the class they attended was previously discontinued and they had no other way to become literate and integrate a bit more into society. ive sat through some of her sessions and ill never forget the look in their eyes and how happy and excited to learn they all were
they went on to get their 6th grade diploma and some of them even continued their studies beyond that, im also proud of my mom who helped save them and at least be more literate, even though its not much to a full education but its about as good as it gets given the circumstances
I have three kids. I was present for the birth of the youngest two. But I adopted my oldest. She was 12 so she had to tell the judge she was OK with it. I told her it came with two conditions: Nothing between us needed to change and she didn’t have to call me “Dad”. She calls me by first name to my face but she calls me “dad” behind my back. I’ll take it.
In 2007, I, a non-white non-Korean, took a job in South Korea. Then, I took another. Then, at the third job, I was hired, but the owner’s brother was amenable to some of the more racist thoughts that guided the approach to business in SK. He thought I would hurt the business. He resisted hiring another non-white, non-Korean.
The owner asked me to write a letter. Instead of saying, “that’s not my job”, I wrote the letter. I made the case. They hired another non-white, non-Korean after me.
It just so happens I’m proud of something I did two hours ago as I write this sentence. A friend of mine said they needed a constant companion for the time being, and another friend said they needed a certain demographic to be friends with, and after realizing the first friend fell under that demographic, I thought “wait, do these two people know each other”. Three hours ago as I write this sentence, I introduced them, and they really hit it off. I just made three people very happy.
When I was still in a band we played the same venue that I saw one of my favorite bands play at once. That was really cool, even though it was on a Monday and we just played to other bands.
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