Mina asked Daniel 6 questions across Seoul and Chicago.
Mina and Daniel had not met. This was how Daniel first introduced themselves:
The first question came from this introduction. Later questions followed the answers.
34, and 35 in December. Though the kids at school are convinced I'm about 50. I think it's because I own four shirts and three of them are the same blue.
Take a turn being interviewed. Write a short introduction and give someone a place to ask you a question.
No. I grew up in a small town about four hours north, the kind of place where the bus stops twice a day. I came to Chicago at nineteen for college and just never went back. My mother still asks when I'm coming home, and I still say soon.
Grade 4, so nine and ten year olds. Fifty-two of them in one room, which sounds like chaos and mostly is. Six years in the same classroom now — same cracked window, same corner where the chalk dust collects. I know which desk wobbles without looking.
Tried to sleep, mostly. Home by five, in bed by six thirty with the curtain taped to the wall, then lying there listening to the neighbours' TV until nine. Some days I got two hours, some days none. Then I'd pack the next day's shirt in a bag and go. I ate a lot of standing-up dinners that year.
Three. Everything before three is just late, and everything after three is early. There was a man who came in almost every night around then and bought one egg. One. Never two. I still think about him more than I think about most people I've actually had conversations with.
Yes. I used to think a child asleep at their desk was being lazy. Now I let them sleep ten minutes and wake them quietly, and I never ask why in front of the others. That whole year, nobody at school ever asked me why I looked tired. I don't think they were unkind. It just doesn't occur to people that the person in front of them has a second half of the day.
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ノートは今も続けていますか？
我也上过两年夜班。“不是安静，是慢”这句说得很准。