flâneur

everyone wants community - chris's cursed substack

chrisnguyn.substack.com · 5,202 words · saved by 1 readers

the furthest back i can trace this feeling is elementary school. i was one of the few asian kids in a predominately white school, coupled with having an overly paranoid, tiger-like, helicopter mother who was scared of seemingly everything. “come home when school ends! no signing up for extracurriculars! no spending time with other kids outside of class!” to her, anything past the confines of our four walls was unsafe (or a waste of money, why go out when everything you need is at home?). family trips were something i wished for and i spent many childhood summers indoors. i used to wonder why my mom made the family shut-ins, but as i got older, i came to understand that coming off the vietnam war and having to immigrate from vietnam to canada, it was due to growing up in war-torn times surrounded by uncertainty. she wanted us to be safe where the family was under her (ever present) watchful eye. for these reasons, i fell pretty hard into the technological trap where my computer was my o

i grew up kind of lonely, i think. the furthest back i can trace this feeling is in elementary school. i was one of the few asian kids in a predominately white school, coupled with having an overly paranoid, tiger-like, helicopter mother who was scared of everything. “come home when school ends! no signing up for extracurriculars! no spending time with kids outside of class!” to her, anything past the confines of our four walls was unsafe or a waste of money; “why go outside when everything you need is at home?” family trips were something i wished for, and i spent many childhood summers…

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