I COME FROM A LINEAGE OF CEILING BREAKERS. My grandmother, Po-po, unwrapped her bound feet and became a nurse—although her shoe size remained a size 1. Her daughter (my mother), a public-school teacher, drove to nine schools every week so no children in our county would be left out of a statewide pilot program.
My work experience started early, as a kid-helper in my family’s retail shops at the mall. One of those ventures was a new-fangled restaurant featuring handmade egg rolls and freshly brewed sweet iced tea. This oddball pairing went viral,