America has always been this land of opportunity, if you worked hard you could achieve your dreams. I think that’s the reason my parents immigrated here, it was for my future. When I was a tiny baby up until I was in middle school, both of my parents were busy working most of the time, so my grandparents stepped in to take care of me and my two other siblings. My Grandma was only able to complete second grade, and due to financial issues had to stop going to school and get a job to support herself. Not only did she raise four kids of her own, but at her old age also helped raise three more grandkids. I admire her resilience, but it saddens me that she wasn’t even able to finish school. I had a talk with my Mom about college not long ago when my senior year came around. She was busy in the kitchen preparing dinner. My parents finished high school, but they weren’t able to pursue higher education due to financial issues. My Mom especially, deeply regrets not going to college because now she’s stuck in all these low wage jobs and on top of that taking care of three kids. She’s always been supportive of my dreams and passions, but because of my family history, money and career choice is something that always weighed on my mind. I changed my mind so many times during these talks in the kitchen; “I’ll just do community college because it’s cheaper”, “maybe I’ll make a lot of money as an engineer”, “what if I go out of state”, and so on. But after all these years of seeing my Mom constantly working all of these dead-end jobs and coming home exhausted, I have decided to pursue a career in the arts because in the future I want to make money doing something I love. Even with the support I have around me, it feels so selfish and stupid to get into the arts with my family’s financial history, like I’m chasing this wild fantasy dream. This decision to attend an art college has taken several late night kitchen talks to reach because I constantly worry about the cost of it all. I’m grateful for all the sacrifices my Mom has taken to get me to where I am now, with a chance to go to college and pursue the arts. All of this is just to say I’m a first gen Chinese American, and my family has never had the opportunity to attend college because of the daunting price holding them back.

When I was a kid I loved video games, but I was never able to actually play many of them because I didn’t have the right computer or console to play them on, so I would spend a lot of time watching other people play video games instead. One random fourth grade day, a friend of mine mentions Pikachu to me and I go, “what’s Pikachu?” “It’s a Pokémon, you know, like the game?” And from that day on, my obsession for Pokémon began. That entire summer between fourth and fifth grade was just Pokémon. I was watching people play Pokémon, I was watching the anime of it, and I was drawing a LOT of Pokémon. It genuinely was just eat, sleep, and breathe Pokémon for a whole summer. By the end of it, I knew the entire Pokédex by heart. At those scholastic book fairs my elementary school hosted, I would always buy a Pokémon book. Sometimes it was an actual book that taught you how to draw a Pokémon, but most of the time it was essentially a game handbook that had all the Pokémons. It was the “Pokémon deluxe essential handbook” which contained all the information about over 700 Pokémons at the time. Even though I didn't own a single Pokémon game, I read those kinds of books cover to cover. Using those books I would copy the original image but then I’d change the pose, the angle, the background, and then make a new drawing. At the time, I didn’t even realize that what I was doing was using an art reference. It was helping me draw better and understand color and form, but I was just having fun with it. Pokémon was like a catalyst for my imagination and creativity to thrive. All the time I would make up my own Pokémon, my own game mechanic, and Pokémon food. One of the game mechanics I made up was an additional “queen” or “king” evolution that made the Pokémon stronger. It could give them a new attack move, or give them an extra type advantage. Even though I may not be as obsessed with Pokémon as I was when I was little, it still holds a nostalgic place in my heart. The things I want to pursue in the future have been influenced by the art of many video games I loved as a kid, not just Pokémon, video games have really helped me grow my creativity and artistic voice.