flâneur

on family + a late happy father's day

chrisnguyn.substack.com · 1,599 words · saved by 1 readers

when i was in 2nd grade, we had an assignment to graph out our family tree on a bristol board and present it to the class. this included everyone you knew about, their relation to you, and a picture of them. “if, for some reason, you don’t have a picture of someone in particular, you can draw a portrait.” alright, then that’s what i’ll do. i started with everyone who was directly related to me: my mom, dad, and two sisters. aside from that, i didn’t know anyone else. i’ve loosely heard names of aunts, uncles, and cousins here and there, and have seen them a few times at family gatherings, but i didn’t know know them. more so, i didn’t have pictures of anyone. i wasn’t sure if we had a family photo album, and i didn’t want to ask. the day we presented our bristol boards, i got berated. i had a very simple graph relative to my classmates intricate and well-detailed assignments. i couldn’t say more beyond, “i don’t know, i just don’t.” to my teacher, who was chastising me with “how do you

when i was in 2nd grade, we had an assignment to graph out our family tree on a bristol board and present it to the class. this included everyone you knew about, their relation to you, and a picture of them. “if, for some reason, you don’t have a picture of someone in particular, you can draw a portrait.” alright, then that’s what i’ll do. i started with everyone who was directly related to me: my mom, dad, and two sisters. aside from that, i didn’t know anyone else. i’ve loosely heard names of aunts, uncles, and cousins here and there, and have seen them a few times at family gatherings,…

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