Hello! And welcome to the 28th post of Pizza Rat's Paradise.
This is probably one of the pictures I'll leave up here where I show the meal finished -- the food was so good and satisfying, and I was so hungry, that I forgot to take a picture! I've always been so extremely lucky to have lived in places throughout my whole life where there's been easy access to Korean food -- the kind that I grew up with, and a more modern generation kind, as well as other traditional forms. Interestingly, my parents were somewhat traditional and modern but controlling/abusive in different ways and overprotective -- so I wasn't really able to see what other Korean/Korean-American kids ate at their homes growing up except for one neighbor's. It was difficult, being unable to socialize with other kids unless it was for "school" reasons. As a first-born, I still remember arguing against my parents for having to not "retake" the SAT because I scored less than 2300 -- oh, how dare I? After all, they were of the generation of South Koreans that was raised under a system that used standardized testing to sort people into their career paths. Looking more into late 20th Century Korean history, I believe one of the biggest drivers of this was that the government was pushing for more economical growth and industrialization and Westernization -- which is why you see that lots of Koreans have been "successful" in a sense that is palatable and understandable to the Western hemisphere-- you see this in lots of language that says, "Marriage of the East and West." What is interesting to me about this is that this is not a direct result of colonialization, but rather a strategic and concerted effort put forth by the South Korean government.
Anyway, this sentiment of fighting to be represented as more than just my one standardized test score, of feeling like I was forging forth a path through a jungle to make things easier for my younger brother, this feeling was so unique that I felt like the film "Sing Street" could truly encapsulate for me -- there's a bit of a monologue where Jack Reynor, who plays the elder brother, tells his younger brother played by Ferdia Walsh-Peelo what his life experience was like growing up:
It wasn't quite the same for me growing up, but it was the first time in film or art that was relatable to me -- it wasn't about being "Asian," it wasn't about being a "woman," -- it was about the intricacies of family dynamics and of feeling like you are not understood, of being caught in the middle, when I was in high school.
What is interesting is that as I gained more experience, people tend to become this persona as a result of the way you treat them -- that is, if you treat someone like a child, they will act like one; if you treat them as an adult, they will behave more in kind -- regardless of age. If you treat someone as your equal, they will respond like so.
And so, begs the question, how would you want to treat the next person you are with?
Do you see them as your equal?
As someone below you, or above you?
I had to leave certain friends behind because of the way they treated the homeless - or at least, temporarily homeless. It was incredible - these people didn't have a lot of money themselves, but looked on the homeless with extreme condescension, almost bigotry. I wouldn't ask my friends to become self-martyrs and give their homes to just anyone on the street, but the attitude over time was alarming. And these people came from extremely well-to-do families, wealthy, highly educated...but over time, as I got to know them, they seemed manipulative and immature, and it broke my heart a little bit.
If you have made it this far, thank you for reading! 💚
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