Gobble gobble! Hope everyone’s enjoying their Thanksgiving, a much needed break to rejoice in the company of the people you care about or even to have a moment to yourself. This is the perfect opportunity to reflect on the things we appreciate, the big and the little things we have that not everyone else may have. Some people are able to have the day off of school or off of work, which means that they are fortunate to be in school or to be employed. Some people don’t even have this day off, especially with Black Friday sales starting earlier than ever (Walmart opens at 6:00pm Thursday). So, we at Pacific Ties thought it’d be a good gest to find out what Asian Pacific Islander (API) students on UCLA campus appreciate on a random day basis. By interviewing different API students at UCLA, the Pacific Ties team found that there’s a lot of things to be grateful for.
This is the first of many questions to come under a new survey started by Pacific Ties. Our goal with this project is to collect a variety of responses that represent the diversity of Asian Pacific Islander students on UCLA campus, providing insight into the present lives of API students and how cultural influences or other factors play a role in their lives. We seek to de-stigmatize students of color and to challenge common stereotypes surrounding Asian American identity. Our purpose is to form a strong connection with and between different Asian American communities and to project the voices of Asian Pacific Islander students at UCLA.
Question of the week: “What are you grateful for today?”
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Here are the responses we collected:
Bay Bui, fifth-year Sociology student
“Today? I just kind of try to live life in the present. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of existentialism. Pretty much my philosophy in life: I try to give thanks everyday to the ordinary things ’cause I feel like not a lot of people give thanks, and I just try to be grateful for all the minor things – not the big things. I mean, just the fact that I broke my leg twice at UCLA, so I was using the OSD van and it’s really rough cause y’know the whole campus is a hill. So, I give thanks that I can walk every day; I give thanks I can see every day; I give thanks I can hear every day. Once you give thanks to the minor things, all the non-minor things become irrelevant, pretty much. I’m a total hippie, huh.”
Julia Tran, third-year MIMG student
“I think especially with the typhoon that just happened and also some posts I’ve seen on Facebook talking about how a lot of people’s family members have died, I think right now I’m most thankful for my family members and my friends who are with me right now just because I know they might not be there all the time every single day. So, it’s something that people lose track of on a day-to-day basis just because they’re caught up with midterms and stuff like that.”
Kenji Chawla, first-year undeclared Political Science student
“I like this weather. I mean, I like the fact that I get to be in a good college in a nice place. All my friends are dealing with snow back home [in New Jersey]. It hit 90 today so that’s chill. I’m just glad that I can have a stable sort of life as opposed to some people who can’t.”
Jessica Nyon, first-year Bio-chemistry student
“I think I’m most grateful for my roommates on campus and because things have been going on in my home and they’ve been there, and also I guess all the stuff that we have on UCLA that I don’t really know about ’cause I just found out about these services that I have access to. And it’s really nice cause it helps me feel set for the future.”
Thien Truong, third-year Biology student
“I’m grateful to have an opportunity to go to school.”
Erika Yoon, first-year Math / Applied Science student
“I’m grateful for friends and family who are with me even though they’re far away. And I’m grateful for their support and helping me study – cause I just had a midterm today!”
James Lin, second-year Psychobiology student
“Today I’m grateful that I have very good friends and my family who support me, especially when there’s a lot of stress going on. I feel like having good friends makes life worth doing.”
“I’m always grateful for my family. They’re always really loving and supportive in everything I do.”
We’re also interested in hearing what you think! Leave a response in the comments below, or suggest a question to ask. The question(s) can be something you want to ask the current Asian American population on campus (what they think about a certain issue or topic). If we choose to use your question, we will credit you at the beginning of that post. Stay tuned for our next round. This is a bi-weekly project and survey of Asian American students on UCLA campus.
**In order to produce a more accurate representation, we collect all responses to show the diversity and/or uniformity of Asian American students at UCLA and what they think about a certain issue or topic.
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