in my secret dream life, i would be:

1. fashion magazine editor

2. food critic

3. travel show hostess

in real life, i am:

1. a first-generation immigrant, the first child to be born to vietnamese immigrant parents in the new country. i love books by amy tan and stories like “the namesake.” i have a last name people can’t pronounce. i learned english by watching “sesame street” and television. i eat a lot of rice.

2. 22-years-old, one year away from being a full-fledged “20-something”.  it’s thrilling/terrifying.  more terrifying, at this point.

3. a college student, which means my life is scheduled meetings, online assignments, and deadlines during the week and themed parties, beer pong and dance parties on the weekends.

4. a university of arizona wildcat, which means i kick ass and would rather die than be a sun devil.

5. a microbiology and spanish double major (with a concentration in portuguese and a chemistry minor), which means my weekdays are a flip-flopping of chicano/a literature, biochemical pathways, organic chemical structures and portuguese grammar exercises.

6. a fashion lover. i read fashion magazines and blogs like it’s my job, and i have a shopping habit that leaves me poor but so happy.

7. a catholic. above all, i believe in love, acceptance, kindness and goodness.

8. politically liberal. for the longest time i considered myself moderate, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

9. an older sister. i am responsible, ambitious and confident. i can also be bossy, impatient and overbearing. i regularly assume the “surrogate parent” role.

10. a traveler. i love airports. i have wanderlust and am almost always restless. i have been to brazil, canada, mexico, england, france, germany, austria, the netherlands, switzerland, italy and vietnam. one of my favorite feelings in the whole world is being in a foreign public place where you understand absolutely nothing of what anyone is saying.

11. a lover of words – of poetry and prose, of spelling and grammar. in conjunction with this, i also love languages – i live my life going in and out of english, spanish, vietnamese and portuguese. eventually i also want to learn italian and french.

12. a photography enthusiast. i have taken five years of classes. having not so much the financial backing to produce photography and not so much the confidence to call myself a photographer, i’ve been satiating myself with frequenting the wonderful center for creative photography at ua. my favorite is richard avedon.

14. a fat kid. i love reading restaurant reviews and recipes, cooking, watching the foodnetwork, eating food, looking at pictures of food, and reading wikipedia articles about food.