Language is the tool of my trade -and I use them all - all the Englishes I grew up with

People there only dream that it is China, because if you are Chinese you can never let go of China in your mind.

What is true about a person? Would I change in the same way the river changes color but still be the same person?... And then I realized it was the first time I could see the power of the wind. I couldn't see the wind itself, but I could see it carried water that filled the rivers and shaped the countryside.

It is because I had so much joy that I came to have so much hate.

If you can't change your fate, change your attitude.

My sisters and I stand, arms around each other, laughind and wiping the tears from each others eyes. The flash of the Polaroid goes off and my family hands me the snapshot. My sisters and I watch quietly together, eager to see what develops. Ghe grey-greensurface changes to the bright colors of our three images, sharpening and deepening all at once. And although we don't speak, I know we all see it: Together we look like our mother. Her same eyes, her same mouth, open in suprise to see, her long-cherished wish.

But she never looked back with regret. There were so many ways for things to get better. -Jing-mei