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Hey y'all, it's me Loan.
um...
I
was
not even was but I have been sitting in bed for the past
like
3 hours
not doing much of anything
and then I thought about...
I started thinking about vlogging
and then I started thinking about my youtube channel
which surprisingly has
a decent amount of subscribers even though I don't post videos
regularly.
So I thought to myself how can I engage with my youtube channel so that
it makes sense that i have subscribers.
And
And of course I'm always honored that folks, um, read the stuff
write or listen to me ramble on about the fact that I have youtube
subscribers but i don't do much, um,
so I started asking myself
what would I really like to do
that makes sense,um
and i can make a insecurity tunes reappointed
and that I feel like I can stay committed to and is already apart of the flow of the things that I already do. So I was like
I'm gonna start making videos of me sharing, um,
stories about my mother
or about the relationship I have with my mother
and, um,
so I quite literally just thought about this like 10 minutes ago
but I wanna be able to make videos sharing like really heartwarming or really frustrating
eally frustrating or
really complicated stories about me and my mother:
the sweet moments and the really tough moments. And so
this video, um,
today
today I will be ... oop ...
I will be talking about um,
the first time i flew alone
so this is like
several, several years ago, um
and I was flying with an airline -- I forgot which airline it was -- but
basically
they
if you were under a certain age
you have to pay... your, your
guardian or caretaker would have to pay
$100 both ways for you to get an escort.
This person would make sure that you were
at your gate
and that you got the on the airplane and then afterward
when you were getting off of the plane they would make sure that you got off of the plane
after everyone, and
they would sit you in the TSA office and then they would make sure that you parent
or caretaker
got a gate pass so they could come to your gate and get you. And it was a
really frustrating
process, um
because we weren't...like I
was going for a conference and we weren't planning on having to
one: pay $100 and two: me
needing an escort. I was like
I have survived a lot of tough *** I don't think I need someone to watch me sit at
gate, sit on a plane
and get off the plane
But, you know, I had to get to this conference so,
um, I got an escort
and, um,
, everything was fine, my mom took me to the gate and she left
and i sat there by myself
and no one ever really like paid attention to me.
and all the way back from the trip, um
the same sort of ordeal happened and then, um,
when I landed in charlotte again, um,
I had to wait for everyone to get off of the plane before I could get off. Then the tsa
agent took me to the tsa office.
and i said, "you know, can i leave,
can I just go downstairs, like my mom's waiting for me."
and kept insisting that my mom need to
go get a gate pass.
and i said, "Well,
actually,
my mom doesn't speak english
and she has never had a desire to really learn in these past several years
and so she actually can't get a gate pass, so,
considering that we just paid $200 for you to watch me
maybe you should just take me downstairs or if you don't take me downstairs then I'm just gonna walk away." And then
I got into a bickering with the TSA
officer who then started asking,
"well does your mom have a driver's license?"
and i said,
"yeah my mom has a driver's license."
and then she goes,
"I don't understand how she has a driver's license if she doesn't speak English."
and then i was like
"oh i am so over this"
and I walked away from the tsa officer
and I made my way downstairs. and, um, by that point
And by that point I was on the verge of tears because I was like,
"oh hell no you did not just ask that question. Like you
quite literally just asked how my mom has
managed to survive in this country
like for the past like
almost two decades
without knowing english, you know, um
and i told my mom
she she just sorta laughed 'cause at that point in her life
she was just sorta so over people being like, you know,
anti-her existence.Um, but I remember, um,
feeling so much anger and sadness, um, and the way
that the TSA officer had framed that. You know,
it just felt really condescending and really shaming, um, and it felt like it
was perpetuating this
idea that, you know,
that my mother had to learn English when it had taken her years to finally get over the fact that it was okay
for her to not to learn English. And
it was okay for her to not want to speak English. Um, so,
that's sorta the story for today about me and my mom. It was, you know, there's
cute stories, but, um,
I've been traveling a lot lately and that's what I've been thinking about, um,
is about how often our parents are questioned, um, like our
migrant parents are questioned for how they have managed to make
it in this country. Um, and, and, I am
so damn proud of my mom for having made it in this country.
see you next time! i hope
it was worth it. bye y'all.