west meets east feast

Having two different cultures (that of my family and that of the society I live in) always makes holiday gatherings full of different kinds of food. I like to think that the two epicurean traditions can coexist well and not lead to some dichotomy in holiday celebration-ism.

This year, I experienced the phenomenon twice: once on Christmas Eve at home with my paternal grandparents (who are in town for a family friend's funeral) and then on Christmas Day in Sacramento with my maternal grandparents. For me, the holidays are not complete without turkey, a honey baked ham, and sparkling apple cider. For both sets of grandparents, any meal is not complete without tons of Chinese dishes. This leads to a dinner that seems like a hodge podge of food (hoards of food), but always ends up with satiated stomachs. Furthermore, there is always a heaping portion of love all around that reminds us why family comprises one of the strongest parts of our identities.

I have to admit, the meeting of two cultures, two minds, two hearts, or whatever it may be, always leads to the possibility of cacophony and discord. Nonetheless, we should be willing to take the chance to meld things together, to find out whether two things can converge and form a fit. Some of the best things in life would not exist if we did not take the chance to experiment and put together two seemingly dissimilar elements. From peanut butter and banana sandwiches to jean jackets and leg warmers, taking risks really allows for the opportunity that something great can emerge, or at least we can get a laugh out of our attempt.

The only issue . . . taking chances.

halfway there . . . meet me halfway.

As of this writing, I am halfway on the flight from BOS to SFO and also halfway done with law school. It naturally made sense to posit a theme dealing with halfness.

It is so so nice to feel a sense of relief that finals madness is over. After my final yesterday, I spent a glorious day with friends at two beer gardens with burgers and all you can eat wings, packed and cleaned up my entire apartment, and just basked in the fact that I could relax and finally have a life again.

This past semester has been such a challenging and fulfilling one for me. From clinic to journal to APALSA to schoolwork to running all the time, I have learned so much about myself, who I want to become, and what I value in life. I knew that this year was going to be a pivotal one for me in determining the course of my life and I have not been proven wrong. People say that 2L year is a lot easier than 1L, but I think that it is much busier, but nice because we have more of a sense of what it is that drives us.

Now I will be spending a little less than three weeks in the Bay Area and then about a week in Florida for some Disney adventures and the marathon. I still cannot believe that we are in the midst of a new year, which is sure to bring new stresses, revelations, and joys. I am excited not to necessarily turn over a new leaf, but to continue to grow.

After all, isn't the cup half full?

Perfect Pair

I have size 5 feet, 6 if I'm wearing knee high boots, which are my newest fashion obsession. Not only are my feet small, but they are also wide. This makes it a huge hassle to find the perfect pair of shoes, the shoes that make you want to go out for the night just so you have an excuse to wear them. And let me tell you, when I find that irresistible pair of shoes, those beautiful black leather heels that fit like a dream . . . I will no doubt buy them. These shoes almost always catch my eye when I am not even on the hunt for a fabulous pair. Regardless of the price (well, frankly, I am not browsing at Manolo Blahnik anyways), I will buy these shoes. Why? It's not everyday that you find something that you absolutely will treasure and have gratification that substantially outweighs any sense of regret over your purchase. In fact, it is a relatively rare occurrence that you will find that ideal match and Lord knows, having buyer's remorse is much less offensive than regretting not fighting for that flawless fit.

We always hear the saying that when you go shopping specifically for something you need, you never find it. When on a mission for that item that fits x, y, and z qualities, you are almost always bound to feel cheated, or worse, disappointed in the available selection. You will make concessions because of the necessity of having that thing, negotiations you would not have made otherwise except given the dire circumstances. Inevitably, you end up returning, exchanging, or hanging the dirty little secret in your closet after one or maybe two uses.

What I'm trying to say is, when you find that perfect (fill in the blank) for you, you do not let it go. You fight for it and know that at the end of the day, you have got yourself something worthwhile instead of letting it slip away in the hopes of finding an adequate alternative when you actually need it. Being blissful by surprise is much better than being blase by default, any day of the week. So, what really is stopping us from taking the plunge for that perfect pair when it comes our way?

thankful, grateful, and blessed

Thanksgiving has traditionally been a day I would spend indulging in turkey, a great food coma nap, and just the warm feeling of being with my family.

This year was the first year I did not spend Thanksgiving with my family (last year, I at least spent it with my cousin, her husband, and my aunt and uncle). I was really sad that I could not be home with my parents, brother, and grandparents. However, this year's Thanksgiving festivities were a great blessing and also one I won't be forgetting anytime soon.

I spent the day with my Highrock Brookline family, members of whom have been very important to me the past few months. We had a huge feast of all the traditional Thanksgiving dishes, great conversations, and even got in a good game of football. It was a lot of fun to get out on the field for some fresh air and running. I felt incredibly gratified knowing I have so many people here that I can share my time, love, and faith with.

More importantly, I have found that this past year has been one I am immensely thankful for. From becoming acclimated to Boston to finding my love of the law to regaining my spiritual strength to taking on new challenges I had never expected I would take, I have been so blessed. Everyone around me has had a great impact on me, whether they challenged me to become a better person or shared in my many laughs and cries.

I couldn't have asked for a better year to start defining who I am as an independent woman making her own decisions about who she will become as a daughter, sister, friend, lawyer, and most importantly, friend and stronghold.

Even a year ago, I would not have envisioned myself doing so many of the things I have: become a certified SCUBA diver, trained for a marathon through wind, rain, and snow, advocated for impoverished clients at a clinic, and grown up to be the woman I truly want to be, among a myriad of other wonderful growing experiences.

I cannot wait for all the accomplishments I am going to make, all the people I am going to meet, the love I am going to experience, and all the adventures God has for me.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Busy Bee

I have not had the chance to update my blog lately because I have been inundated with work: from clinic to journal to classes to APALSA, things have simply been chaotic. I find that a lot of my free time has become devoted to running. Thankfully, I have some great friends (and my Team from Team in Training!) who I can run with and who keep me going.

Keeping this in mind, I thought I would share some information about bone marrow registry drives.

http://www.helpingjanet.com/

Janet Liang, a recent graduate of UCLA, my alma mater, was recently diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. She, like all of us, has many dreams and ambitions for her life and needs our help to win the fight against her cancer.

The Asian American and Pacific Islander community is very much under-represented in bone marrow registry. Bone marrow matches often correlates with ethnicity so it is SUPER important that we all, Asian Americans in particular, change this.

Becoming part of the registry only requires a swab of your inner cheek. After this, you will only be contacted if you are a match for someone and then you can decide if you want to donate. Donating bone marrow is similar to giving blood.

Please consider putting yourself in the bone marrow donor registry. You can help save a life.

There will be a bone marrow registry drive at Boston University School of Law on Monday, November 2nd from 12-3 PM.

Please also keep my marathon efforts and fundraiser for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society in your hearts. Any support to this will mean so much to the blood cancer research efforts, to patient care, and to me. http://pages.teamintraining.org/ma/wdw10/sliuie

Thanks so much.

Love,
Shannon

Barely breathing...

Yesterday was my 23rd birthday. That means it has officially been a year since law school stuff started for me. I spent the day helping welcome the new generation of 1Ls and being oriented to the law journal I am a staff member of. I met up with some friends at school and then I had a nice dinner with some great girls.

Everything seemed to be going relatively well until I got home. I was really sore from my run earlier in the day so I took some pain relievers. Next, my lip started swelling up and I took some Benadryl and went to bed. I woke up a couple of hours later only to have some trouble breathing. Upon consulting a nurse's hotline, I realized I needed to go to the Emergency Room. A friend of mine was so great and drove me to the hospital while I was freaked out and just plain scared.

To preface everything, this summer I developed some autoimmune issues. I would randomly, for no apparent reason, get hives and inflammation that would linger for hours frequently. Luckily, I do not have any food allergies. My allergist, however, said that I have slightly lower levels of white blood cells and higher levels of thyroid antibodies and chronic urticaria. What this basically means is that I have antibodies that sometimes attack my body instead of foreign pathogens. Unfortunately, the allergist said that there is no way to know how long the problem will exist, what specifically triggers the symptoms, and when the symptoms even would occur. Thankfully, the symptoms were more of a nuisance than a big safety issue and he prescribed allergy medicine and histamine blockers.

Tonight, at the hospital, I was hooked up to an IV containing Benadryl and steroids to calm down my inflammation and my throat constriction. It took a couple of hours and drowsiness that led me to nap until progress started showing and I could breath pretty normally. The doctor said that my autoimmune issues this time caused my throat tissues to swell up and thus caused my air passageway to shrink, making it hard for me to breathe. So it was a good idea for me to go to the hospital after all. She prescribed me steroids to take for the next week to hopefully keep any symptoms at bay.

My terrible scary night really showed me that I am loved by my friends. From the texts to the phone calls to the Facebook messages, I could tell that my friends were genuinely worried and cared about my well being. One of them even brought me an ice cream cake today to help make up for the fact that my night was so awful. My cousin brought me soup too. It also made me realize that life is not always going to be easy and I will have challenges to face, but I am so thankful that the ones I face are really miniscule compared to the ones people with terminal illnesses face. I will have to consult more specialists to see if they can figure out what the underlying problem is and how I can fix things so I do not have any dangerous symptoms like not being able to breathe in the future.

So I guess I started my 23rd year a lot differently than I had planned to. I am an extremely blessed girl and want to use the blessings I have been given to love others and be the best person I can be for others.

Back to Boston

I have been back in Boston for almost a week now, which signifies that the summer is really coming to a close. Unfortunately, Boston weather is anything but "end of summer weather" because it is incredibly hot and humid. I actually played ultimate frisbee in Boston Common (the oldest park in the United States) and it was almost unbearable; at the same time, it was a pretty cool experience to have.

My summer back in California was great; it was an amazing time for me to get some work experience, think about my goals, and also work A LOT on my faith. All these things showed me that this next year will be a very tough one for me, figuring out what I want to do (which is not big law!) and who I am, but it will be so good as well. This next semester will be busy with civil litigation clinic, working on a journal, job searching for government and public service jobs, getting involved with a church, and of course, training for a FULL (I officially decided to make the bump up to a full marathon) marathon. I am so so excited to be working on myself and pursuing my interests.