Race

Now the question arises... was it really that bad back then? At least I never got lynched... How much of it was racism and how much of it was really kids being kids? Kinda hard to say now seeing as I don't remember much anymore.

I do remember being chased around campus by the entire class. I was presumably running away from my problems, likely coming from the fact that I looked different from everyone else. My comrades were... the fat kids, the nerds, the... well she wasn't an orphan but she was living with her grandparents and great grandparents cuz her parents were missing for various reasons, and the other outcasts. But I usually went home on the bus, cuz I lived outside of the housing communities. Things were a little worse there. The children were usually from migrant worker families, a lot of which found their daily bread at the local dairy farms. That's mostly where I got the name 'Chink'. Most of the other nicknames I got were racial in meaning. But was it really any worse than what the other kids were facing? At that school? How about here in Rosemead? Or... the inner city schools? It's hard to say... I managed to escape that reality when I came here.

BTW... the day I learned the word melancholy... I thought it was a flower. It was sunny that day and I was standing in line for lunch because my dad didn't have time to make lunch for me like some of the other kids.