Having finished a book that addresses my cultural identity crisis, I am now in the midst of my ‘quarterlife crisis’ as a twenty-something in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where I have settled for the time being. During the day (and unfortunately, some nights), I write business cases on retail marketing at the Harvard Business School, research retail markets and industries, and continue work on a book on department stores in the United States. I also work as an online writing tutor at a startup called WritersStreet.com. I enjoy my jobs and intend to keep them for the near foreseeable future, but the 'crisis' abides as I feel out long term aspirations in career, love, and life in general.

Before entering this period, I was an undergraduate at Boston College, from which I graduated summa cum laude with one B.A. in Philosophy and Human Development, some experience in organizing student movements for choice causes, and a bit of notoriety for pushing the envelope in race dialogues. Before college, I attended high school in Cupertino, CA with my co-editor John Hsu. Before high school, I was a middle schooler in Rochester, NY. Before then, I was an elementary schooler in Henrietta, NY as well as Athens, GA. Finally, I was born in Seoul, Korea and lived there till I was five. From having a charming southern twang (now lost, unfortunately), having Jewish holidays off from school, and having AP Chemistry with some 34 other Asian Americans (all the while having kimchi for dinner), my American experiences have been multifarious and have shaped my Americanness in ways I continue to discover now.

My current preoccupations include quick casual restaurants, the poetry of C. K. Williams and T. S. Eliot (Four Quartets, as always), and the music of Francis Kim Band. My bedside table is towering with books (as usual) with issues of The New Yorker and Vogue, Rilke's Letters to a young poet, The Prayer of Jabez, Appiah's Ethics of Ethnicity, and The Intelligent Investor. I've been listening to the Garden State soundtrack, Keane's Hopes and Fears, Rachmaninov's Piano Concerti, and mixed hip-hop?new and old school. Friends new/old, near/far have continued to enrich my thoughts and feelings in chats over great cuisine.

Sure, this quarterlife business can be confusing and disorienting, and sometimes I'm inclined to duck for cover in the academy. When all is said and done, though, I'm enjoying the things I love most--good conversation, good reads, good eats, and good problems--happily squeezing away at life's lemons in the beautifully chaotic whole called life.

Current: October 2007
Archive: May 2006
Archive: August 2004

Contact Arar at arar[at]asianamericanx[dot]com