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So, I'm David Streid. I am a freshman at Columbia University.
I just finished my first semester and my intended major is biology or biochemistry.
I lived in saint louis for seven years;
I moved here the summer of my sixth grade,
and since then I've really appreciated the city
and
what really made me appreciate Saint Louis was being away from it for four months
because something about
not being able to bike through Forest Park,
or go downtown and see the free concerts that they have,
and especially to come to the Taiwanese Presbyterian Church,
it's something that
I have missed a lot once I have moved away from all these things and
sort of not had the opportunity to go back to them.
And so what I really appreciated
about being in Saint Louis,
especially since my mother is Taiwanese,
is having a connection to
a Taiwanese community that I normally wouldn't get.
The last time I visited Taiwan
was the spring break of sixth grade
and that was a two week visit. It was incredible -
I got to see my grandparents and I got to see Taipei 101
and a bunch of sights in Taiwan.
But since then I have not been back to Taiwan and the only
really strong connections that I've had to Taiwan are through my mother
and the Taiwanese Presbyterian Church.
Being a part of the Taiwanese Presbyterian Church for about seven years now
has really made sure that I respect the culture and appreciate
the background that I do come from because it's not one that's
really explicit in
New York
or even in Saint Louis as well.
The thing about
having a sermon translated into Mandarin
as well as the into English is something that you won't find
in many churches,
and this respect
for translating the Gospel of God into two different languages so
it's more accessible is something I feel is very important and I feel that
the Taiwanese Presbyterian Church
does incredibly well.
And so it's this connection, whether it's the
Taiwanese food that we occasionally have during lunch
or just being able to interact with other people from Taiwan who still have
respect for their culture
and appreciate their background has been very important,
especially now that I'm in New York and don't have
that anymore. So because I had this
great founding in
what the Taiwanese community is like
through the Taiwanese Presbyterian Church,
it really gave me an appreciation for
the country that my mother
really hasn't visited for the past seven years and so
because I have this community, it's given me a greater understanding of
the culture
and it'd be
a wonderful thing for me to go back at some point
and I fully intend to.
And during that time
I'm glad that I will not have been disconnected
from that culture
because of my mom and the Taiwanese Presbyterian Church.