5 Personal Stories

1 LIFE LESSONS

I was never meant to be an athlete. Standing at maybe 4 feet tall as a child, having bad lungs thanks to asthma, and being unable to gain any type of healthy weight, I was always tiny. However, for as long as I can remember, I have always loved to run.

Growing up in sunny southern California, where summer is practically a year-round occurrence, my sister and I would spend endless hours at the local park just running. Good sportsmanship came as naturally to me as putting one foot in front of the other. I knew no matter win or lose, it was how one responded to the situation that made them a good athlete. I treated my teammates with love and my opponents not as rivals, but as friends. But to my younger, innocent self ’s horror, I learned not everyone did the same.

Where I grew up in Irvine, California, my basketball team would practice once a week in a gym owned and run by the local Chinese Cultural Center. There, I was exposed to a diverse group of people, religions and schools.

I was the only Caucasian girl on the team—perhaps in the whole league—and it was in the fifth grade that I began to see its