How I Stumbled Across Universal Literacy

Youth, rebellion, recklessness – three words that describe the teenage years of an angst-ridden American-Born-Chinese. Growing up, I had some sense of what was supposed to be important in life: politics, news, history, religion, family, math… it all sounded good—kind of like how communism sounded good—and that was exactly how I treated those subjects, with the utmost disobedience. Being born into a Discourse, as John Paul Gee puts, “…involve a set of values and viewpoints in terms of which one must speak and act” (Literacy, Discourse, and Linguistics, 538). Being born into an Asian-American household, I was pressured heavily to achieve academic success. However, I didn’t care much to squeeze myself into this supposed Discourse of a perfect Asian. Nobody seemed to offer me a solid reason why I should apply myself in school, and so, I began to distrust the normal notions that good grades equal a good life. It would take me years to begin to realize just how stubborn I had been. I acquired, through being part of many discourses that, eventually, everything connects. I had always heard the same thing, “Graduate from a good college and find a decent living, and you’ll be happy and successful.” Hah! What a capitalistic, factory-produced, mind-n(d)umbing fairy tale to tell impressionable children, I thought. Nope, I was smarter than that. I would be the one to take the road less traveled—to go against the grain and live my own life the way I wanted to. After barely graduating high school with a GED (or a GED equivalent actually…), I took off to LA to become a music-producer. I was going to be big. I learned the trade, worked inside multi-million dollar studios, and formed a band. I had it all figured out and I was going to show everybody that school was for fools. As with everything in life, this intoxicating success did not last. I began to feel something was missing. Here I was, living the dream that I had imagined for myself, and yet, I didn't feel much fulfillment.