I knew what was happening; a sense of awkward sadness came over me.  I had answered the phone, and my grandfather greeted me in Korean with “Hello, good son!”

I grew up in a home where breaking plates spoke louder...

At 16, I transferred to an online school. My classmates come from the US, Japan, Germany; we each have our own study habits, texting quirks,philosophies. et, amidst our panoply of tongues, we are all young people fighting to assert ourselves...

I grew up with two versions of myself. One recited the Pledge of Allegiance with her right hand flat over her heart, wore gym shoes to school, and ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches at lunch. he other bowed her head in prayer on Eid, wore glittering dresses that shimmered like celebration itself, smelled of rose water and cardamom, and called her grandmother “Nanu” on crackling WhatsApp calls that always dropped mid-conversation...

Read the works published on AWAY's YourWay blog in 2024.

In fifth grade, I had a lot of trouble with my friends…

The question stumped me: “What is your favorite color?” I learned how to say the colors of the rainbow in Cantonese…