Welcome to the Year of the Tiger
According to the 12 Chinese Zodiac, the Year of the Tiger is believed to be a year of “new beginnings.” Because the tiger is the “king of all beasts,” this year is also characterized by “strength, courage, and bravery.”
This year has been a new beginning for me in many ways: it is my first time living by myself, away from family in the United States, and my first time experiencing a real winter in Boston. While new beginnings are not easy, I have been fortunate in many ways to have these experiences. Reflecting on this new chapter of my life, I want to recognize the generation of strong women who have shaped me to become the woman I am today. Thank you to both my grandma and mom for teaching me resilience, love, and bravery.
Strength:
My grandma is tiny but mighty.
She is the owner of a herbal medicine shop
at a small rural town in China.
She wakes up at 6 am every day
and hobbles over to her shop
By 7 am each morning,
promptly
to greet her first customers
Who are already waiting in line
for their herbal tea.
“Cha-ching”
The sound of the cash register
opening and closing
as she rings up customers all day.
Only to stop by 8 pm
when all the customers have left
And returned home for dinner
With loved ones.
The sun rises the next day.
My grandma would get up again
And repeat the whole process.
Against the objections of those
Who tells her she is too old
Who tells her she should just go home and rest
Who tells her she should retire
“No,” my grandma says.
She shakes her head,
“This is my life.”
Courage:
My mom has many identities:
A blue-collared mail carrier
A full-time mother of three
A survivor of lymphoma cancer
A women warrior with strong morals
A giver who always gives but never takes
A believer who always puts her children first
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And trusts in their potential to succeed.
She is also:
an anxious worrier who
struggles to understand the intergenerational gap
and why her children insist on placing their own happiness before the “family.”
She tries her best to understand and communicate —
A mediator of unspoken expectations.
Every morning, she wakes up
With the force of iron:
Fearless, strong, unstoppable.
She dives head-first
Into a world that has taken so much from her.
Regardless, she smiles and nods.
“I am trying; I am enough.”
Bravery:
Does surviving two years of the pandemic
While moving to a new city with no friends,
during the peak of the pandemic
and commuting back and forth on plane flights
With N-95 masks clinging too tightly to the face,
fogging up your glasses
Scratching behind your ears
Leaving marks on your face
Count as being brave?
Or surviving my first blizzard in the brutal, Boston cold?
Because the coldest winter that a Californian girl knows
is the summer shrouded in fog.
Or is being brave:
The courage to get up and face the “Sunday Scaries”
By scanning your laundry list of to-do’s
the little things that begin to pester you.
And so you finally:
Bring out the trash.
Unload the dishwasher.
Do laundry.
Go for a walk.
Go to the gym.
Pay your bills.
Sleep early.
Cheers to a brand new day
Of new beginnings.
