Oh, Kids (cont.)

Want to finish off what's left yesterday.

I had fun with the Hispanic students today by teaching them some Chinese phrases, from "Wo Ai Ni" (I love you) to "Shu Dai Zi" (geek). They loved it.

Just a side note. Hispanic is the future. I notice that Upward Bound is well run by a bunch of second generation college educated Hispanics. Their ethnic solidarity amazed me. They all bond together. It is much better than Chinese. I think they will have the US in the future.

Enough detours. Now I am getting back to my main track. My second group is the dance kids. They are mostly white and spoiled. They are mostly female. Three guys though. One is a white trash, who hates all immigrants. Of course, he does not hate me, because he likes to have “Chinese, Japanese, Korean friends”, but not the ones from the southern border. One is called “fag” by the white trash. I do not think the statement is necessarily true. In fact, he has a soft voice and likes to hang out with girls. I think he is just taking advantage of the situation (to hang out with girls). The last one is a kid living in his own world. He does not look at people as often as it should. Actually, he is sorta afraid of human interactions. Remind of myself in the past though. I wish he will grow up all right.

The girls. How should I start here. They are all beautiful and smart. No kids are obese, for sure. Great dancers, some of them. One girl reminds me of Liv Tayler. Actually, if I manage to get all the movie stars’ teenage pictures, their attractiveness will be about the same with the girls I am taking care of right now. But something bothers me, because they do not live up to my expectation. I know, I know. I am hypercritical, and it is unfair to them. They grow up in their resourceful environment and anything bad about them should be blamed about the whole society. But they are my easy target, so sorry, girls.

First, they are selfish. They have an ego larger than my rationality, which I regard as breaking some record already. What they talk about every day is “me, me, me”. One girl is sick today. But here is my own explanation. Part of the reason is that she suddenly lost attention in the big crowd. She used to be the star in high school or at home, but now some girls are prettier than her, or better dancers than her. It must really hit her. She is sick, therefore. When Mike and I sat with her, she began to cry. And Mike gave her some compliments, and all of a sudden she is all smiling. Damn. Before, I probably would think that this girl is so innocent and down to kid’s nature. But after I hang out with those Hispanic kids, everything is in a different perspective. I only hope people give those kids more attention, give them compliments, encourage them, really (or even pretend to) care about them. My volunteering thing starts as a half-assed commitment, but now I really felt that I am making a difference.

Second, camp kids know how to take advantage of situation. One girl, after assigned in B-level class, told us that she want “challenge” so she wants to shift to the advanced level class. Nothing wrong with that. But it strikes me that how those white high-class girls know how to talk to the right people in a right way to take advantage of any education. In contrast, those Hispanic kids are not really taking advantage of me. They are intimidated to talk to me at the very beginning. Only until recently, after I have established as someone they can trust and feel safe, they begin to ask me questions and talk jokes to me without any hesitation.

Both groups of kids are adorable. They are a world apart, probably would never understand each other's life. Indeed, i am a lucky guy, being able to tap into both comminuties. My Chinese identity helps me somehow, because people have low expectations about me at the beginning and then find out that I have enough stuff to impress them.

So here is the question. If I have to choose one group to giving my blessing, who would I choose. To be honest, I love them both. But to be fair, I want to give the Hispanic kids my blessing here. Those dancers are already well endowed with all those good luck, and a blessing from a guy like me does not make a difference. But for the other groups, they probably can use more of it. So here I go, with the affirmative action of my own consciousness, I wish the Hispanic students the best. It means you, Ronnie, Yuni, Meleto, Ivy, Mayre, Christina and Bresido. I wish most of you will go to college next year. If you see me in the future, please shout out "Shu Dai Zi"!