THOUGH I GET HOME author YZ Chin pens personal essay for The Riveter
Via The Riveter:
America was not my first choice.
At seventeen, I was given a privilege of choosing the country in which I would spend my next few years. This was courtesy of a scholarship to support bright young Malaysians who would pursue college degrees in countries with reputations for superior higher education.
My first choice was New Zealand. I had an image of self-sufficient people living on grassy, windy cliffs, keeping sheep for friends. It seemed perfect for a loner, a depressed teenager trying to read and write my way out of my teenage despair. Australia was my second choice for its proximity. For my third and last choice, I put down America because my birthday is on the Fourth of July.
That is how I came to America...
Read the full essay now.
And don't forget to pre-order Chin's book!
YZ Chin
Interlinked stories trace postcolonial memory and political dissidence across the globe.