Nov. 10/13 – St. Louis feels totally different today than when I was last here in 1987. This time, I came here for a Chess/Church Convention and also to deal with some personal “unfinished business” from 26 years ago.
I experienced a “break through” moment while I was here. Maurice introduced me to his book-publishing partner, Teresa as “Amy is Chinese, born in Vietnam, and raised in Canada so how can she not be interesting?” OMG! I so resonate with that! For the first time, I have no more shameful feelings being associated with Vietnam at all. It’s just the plain truth of who Amy exactly is. Man! I felt so proud of who I really am and that was an awesome moment!! I decided that that’s how I will be introducing myself in the future, too. It’s short, direct and honest! I am just who I am…. And my prideful feelings from wearing the business suit while walking from the convention center back to the hotel in downtown St. Louis happened 2 hours after this break through. I am more than OK with wearing business suits now. Crazy compared with how awkward I felt just 2 weeks ago for wearing the same suit.
I was surprised to see so many black people in St. Louis. Just in the convention center alone, there were 35,000 black people. I reconfirmed how much I appreciate their sense of humour on this trip. I also went to watch a movie called “12 Years a Slave” which talks about American slavery. It was very moving. I felt I learned so much more about this culture during this trip. When I left here, I had the same feelings when I left India – no more prejudice against Indians or Blacks. People are just people regardless of their race. What a liberating feeling to have!
I didn’t enjoy the 10 hours of travelling on my birthday but I was glad to be home in time to have my birthday hot pot dinner at Pandora’s house at 10pm….
Originally posted on Amy’s travel blog: TravelwithAmy.ca