Contracts might seem like scary, mystifying documents, and I see many young freelancers avoid issuing and signing them. But a contract simply exists to protect you and your business by managing expectations. At this point, I wouldn’t do a project for anyone without a contract, not even friends and family. …
Adventures in Rejection
Let’s talk about rejection, baby. Back in 2017, I applied for an internship with a local branding and design studio that was famous for doing great work and building authentic community. I wore my 8-month-old baby to the group interview (they were cool with it) and probably couldn’t carry on …
Remy the Rat vs. Smokey the Bear
I’ve always had a beef with Remy from Ratatouille. His mantra, “Anyone can cook,” is meant to be empowering, but I find it a bit discouraging. If anyone can cook, why should I bother? (I should note that as a Four in the Enneagram personality typing system, my greatest goal in life is …
Giving Yourself a Raise
I’m sure I’m the only one who is a compulsive job searcher. Even when I had a full-time job, I was always curious to see what else was out there. (It didn’t help that the only “raises” I got in teaching came from years of experience, regardless of how hard …
Passive Income for Hard Workers: A Guide
The idea of passive income may seem outrageous to Asian Americans who are used to striving and taught that hard work is our moral duty. (Commentary withheld about the popularity of passive income among white people.) The good – or maybe bad – news is that passive income is never …
Comparative Book Review: Celeste Ng’s “Everything I Never Told You” and “Little Fires Everywhere”
I can’t remember the last time I read two books by the same author back to back…probably college, I suppose. It can be a surprisingly insightful exercise, particularly as I’m overthinking planning how to write my own novel(la). I recently finished both of Celeste Ng’s works, Everything I Never Told …
5 Questions Freelancers Need to Ask Before Taking a Leave of Absence
There’s a running joke among entrepreneurs that we are the only people who will work 80 hours a week for ourselves to avoid working 40 hours a week for someone else. This doesn’t always have to be true, but for many freelancers and small business owners, it hits a little …
Website Walkthrough: Progressive Asian American Christians
The History of PAAC Shortly after the 2016 presidential election, writer Liz Lin published an essay titled, “The Loneliness of the Progressive Asian American Christian.” At the end she linked to a new Facebook group for Progressive Asian American Christians (PAAC), created by Pastor Lydia Shiu. Within 24 hours, 300 …
The Duty of Creativity
During my graduate program and my first year of teaching, I was something of an overachiever. I stubbornly wrote all of my curriculum from scratch and diligently checked all the boxes on my lesson plans. Differentiated instruction, formative assessment, IEP accommodations, spiral curriculum, layered curriculum, social and emotional learning, multiple …