Backroads
“Life is a Highway”: a catchy song with the ring of truth, but I prefer backroads. Yes, they take more time, they have more twists and turns — but they are more like real life.
The first bend in the road of my life was a long one: my family moved to Hong Kong for 2 years when I was 5. Grocery runs involved adapting to the pungent durian in the produce section, my 45-minute bus ride conversations with Gulia (with a G), or being called a baby for my penchant for wearing a helmet. From seeing true love in the structure of the Taj Mahal and true pain in the eyes of the tourists in Tiananmen Square, Hong Kong set me on a new path, as bends often do, instilling in me a sense of empathy and curiosity.
Returning from Hong Kong, my family planned on a more basic road — straightforward, well-suited for a child to ride their bike on — only to encounter more bumps. I was bullied, my father was diagnosed with MS. Then came high school with a major obstruction.
Having played volleyball for 8 years, it was obviously going to be a major part of my high school experience. Alas, my concussion story is far from dramatic — I was simply shagging a ball during warmups and took a shot to the forehead — but the recovery was transformative. I befriended Claire, the first person who did not laugh when I told her my true passion: being on SNL, becoming a showrunner. Knowing that Claire herself had high aspirations (she came home from Tokyo with a silver medal) gave me the confidence to put volleyball behind me, which in turn led me to the media department, where I started making videos and studying broadcast journalism, fostering my aesthetic sensibility.
My recovery also led to another surprising, yet fulfilling backroad. My doctor suggested physical activity, and I gradually progressed from walking to running. Though I had loathed running when I was little, I now enjoy it. I began training with my Marathon-running mom. Running was empowering and practical: through running for Tisch MSRCNY, I have raised $30,000 to fight this awful disease.
Of course, there were more bumps in my road: out of nowhere, on April 13, 2021, I blinked and felt my left eye not closing. Panicked, I barged into my sister’s room — she is majoring in neuroscience, as close as I could get to a “professional” at 12:39 am. She calmed me down and made me laugh, which made her realize that I now had what looked like two different faces, i.e., the classic symptom of Bell’s Palsy, made official the next day. Tired and broken, I just wanted the year to end — my face even forced me to skip prom. While I felt very alone during this time, I was never totally alone: the charming, eccentric personalities Mindy Kaling and Dan Levy, via the screen worlds of Schitt$ Creek, the Mindy Project, and Never Have I Ever, and the way they represent universal issues — insecurity, family dynamics, sexuality, anxiety — not only offered me emotional comfort but proved inspirational: I want to do the same thing. During this trying time — full of steroids and a non-functioning face during the most notorious year of high school — I proved to myself that I can persevere through anything.
My usual commute is through back roads, surrounded by trees and stables making me feel like I’m in the latest Netflix rom-com, listening to Stevie Wonder with the windows rolled down and one arm out in the air, looking at one Baptist church’s reason for rejoicing or why I am going to hell. These seemingly random connections make life what it is. Yes, I do take the highway sometimes, out of necessity, but life is not a highway; highways are rarely filled with bumps, turns, and unexpected things, and people popping up. Life consists of bumps, turns, and unexpected things, and people popping up — like the Raleigh back roads. Yes, Rascal Flatts can sing catchy songs, but Kate Wolf said it best, “The shortest road ain’t always the best, sometime let a back road take you home.”
