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I was born in Mae Sot, Thailand. I immigrated to the United States with my parents at the age of two and a half and have been living here ever since. We have yet to return to visit Thailand, but I hope to do so in the near future to reconnect with family and deepen my connection to my Karen (kuh-REN) roots.

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After immigrating from Thailand, we landed in Amarillo, Texas. Though it is known to be a dry and flat city with fast-changing weather, I am honored to call it my hometown. Living in Amarillo, I felt like I was in a social experiment; I went to church with rich, White folks, attended primary education in the predominantly Black and Hispanic neighborhoods, and reaching high school was the first time I encountered people who looked like me. Growing up, I was in the ESL program, which helped me learn the English language. The program had a profound impact on my life and my pursuit of teaching English on the international level.

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Growing up, I was raised in a Baptist Christian household. I attended church services and heavily involved myself in the ministries. I attended two churches at the time, one for English and another for Karen. At the English church, I went to Sunday School every morning and volunteered at Vacation Bible School in the summers. At the Karen church, I was one of the pianists, praise and worship singers, Sunday school teacher, and a youth member. Being able to surround myself with multiple age groups allowed me to understand the dynamics of a diverse community in a religious setting and grow in faith.

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Karen was my first language. My parents raised me to learn how to read, write, and speak in my language before I started primary school. They never spoke to me in any other language so that my fluency would be pristine. Being able to speak my language makes me feel connected with my culture and the people around me. It also helps me communicate with others when we play.

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My family plays a crucial role in who I am. My parents were strict in how they raised my brother and me. To ensure we would not grow up to be iPad kids, they would take us on adventures. We would go camping and hiking whenever my dad was off work, and in the summertime, we would go on family vacations to other states and cities. My parents' sacrifices ensured that my brother and I would have a happy and safe childhood.

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My brother and I with the Wiggles in the background

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My brother and I are the only two children in the family. With this in mind, we would often interact with each other's friend groups. I ended up growing up with a lot of guys because of my brother, and vice versa for him. Because we were the only two, he was my only friend for quite some time. We used to do everything together, and we still do from time to time. Now that we're older, I take him on food dates to spend time with him.

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This is my best friend, Htee, pronounced like 'tea'. I've known her for more than a decade now. We would do everything together and we consider ourselves sisters from different misters. She's been a key part of my life, from introducing me to tennis to supporting me throughout my academic journey. We go on food dates, play tennis, and take walks around the park together; I really can not appreciate her enough.

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A picture my friends and I took at a tennis tournament

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Tennis has been the sport I played in high school, starting from my eighth-grade year. It keeps me active, and it is also enjoyable to play with friends and family. Through tennis, I was able to travel to other cities to play tournaments and win medals. Tennis also introduced me to the people whom I now love and irreplaceable friendships.

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When I was growing up, I participated in many outdoor activities. From swimming at the pool, camping, or riding my bike, I was outside very often and found comfort in the sun. My liveliness encouraged me to continue outdoor activities ranging from sports like tennis, volleyball, and pickleball, and to enhance my sportsmanship. Similar to the idea that agency influences decisions, being able to play outdoors as a child whenever I asked and chose to, shaped my experience as a child and allowed free expression.

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Being a refugee from Thailand, I experience life in America very differently. I felt as though I couldn't really fit into both cultures. I grew up learning my language, wearing traditional clothes, and playing with children who were the same ethnicity as me. Through that experience and gaining more knowledge, I understand that teaching a diverse class requires an appreciation of my students' cultures and demonstrating an acknowledgement of the students' way of play.

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Growing up, some of my classroom experiences were similar to Ms. Bailey's, but others were also related to classrooms that didn't contain agency. Some of my teachers allowed us to pick and choose topics we were very interested in and make projects from them, or read any books that interested us and write about them. This allowed me to be creative and discover my interests in literature, and also excel in school. What distinguishes my experience from others is that my school was in a Latinx and Black community, so we didn't have as many resources as other schools in our area. Our voices were heard in the classroom, but we were sometimes overlooked because of financial disadvantages. My school did make the most out of our resources, and agency was apparent in some classrooms, but as a school as a whole, it lacked in some dimensions.

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Ableism is a topic that many people fear. In my opinion, ableist ideology is mostly reflected by parents to their children, hence why exclusion happens in classroom settings. For children with disabilities to express their agency requires a lot of patience from teacher, parents, and their peers as well as support. Every child should have the full rights to agency, and if a few limitation is needed, others should not deny or change how the child uses their agency. By acknowledging diversity and maintaining an open classroom setting, children will be in a more inclusive environment, and they will perceive normalcy as a more attainable goal. In my case, my teachers allowed a lot of agency in our classrooms despite the school lacking agency in some dimensions. Having the chance to discover my interests freely, I came to terms with what I enjoy and what I hope to achieve in the future.

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My brother and I along with my neighbors at our local zoo

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The more-than-human world revolves around nature and how it has significantly changed the daily lives of humans. Children develop social skills when playing with other children, allow curiosity to guide them to discover new ideas, and enhance their imagination by creating activities for various scenarios. When I was a young girl, I would often play outdoors because my parents restricted technology in the house. My parents would take my brother and me to the park to play on the playground, ride our bikes, go fishing, or hike to stay connected with nature. We would also go to the zoo on special holidays to see the animals and learn more about them through each visit. The more-than-human world played a key role in my childhood, allowing me to explore the world around me. Since I didn't stay indoors often, I had the freedom to roam and get dirty.

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Growing up, I would usually play with Barbie dolls or princess clothes. I especially enjoyed playing dress-up with the many dresses my parents would buy me, or playing dress-up at one of my friends' houses with her dresses. I scarcely rough-played unless with my parent friends' sons, and even then, it would be occasionally. Reflecting on my childhood, the reasons why I chose to dress up or play with dolls were because my parents believed that it was the way of girlihood. Playing meant dressing up, playing imaginary tea parties, or family. It was considered inappropriate to rough play or get dirty, but as I got older, I strayed away from those stereotypes and played with games and toys that boys played with.

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I've demonstrated civic action by demonstrating sportsmanship when playing with others in sports and lend a helping hand to kids when injured. I remember one event where I was between the grades of kindergarten and second grade where I went downstairs to my neighbor's apartment with my family because of a tornado alert. There, I provided company to my neighbors' kids as we played Family Feud and just hugged each other every time we heard thunder outside. Reflecting on that, I demonstrated all four civic actions by showing sympathy and care during times of fear, which also involves helping someone calm down during a storm, as well as fostering a sense of belonging. I shared understanding by inviting everyone in as we played games.

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I feel as though race played a part in my life as I grew up. I grew up as a refugee asian-american and went to a predominantly white church and went to school with a majority of Latino and Black students. I sometimes felt out of place because I looked different from everybody around me. Growing up, I noticed how I would get strange looks or people would keep their heads higher whenever I passed in church. Here exemplifies white supremacy as most of them were educated and well-off individuals attending the church, whereas I was just a portion of the minority attending the church. School was similar yet different. Here, racism was played off more casually. I found myself being the only Asian student in my grade level for a good portion of my elementary and middle school days. Racial slurs are also thrown around often, and consequences are not really given. Though I didn't find myself having much privilege, thanks to stereotypes, people would put me as higher because I was Asian and appeared smarter, which boosted my confidence just a little bit.

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Growing up bilingual, I had a lot of responsibilities as well as opportunities. Especially since I also grew up in a tight-knit community and household, I spoke my native language every day until the point where I started going to school. My parents held responsibilities for me as I started becoming more fluent in both Karen and English. I was made to start translating at a very young age and was required to go to every doctor's office or even to a supermarket so that I could translate and explain English to my parents or family members. As I grew older, I started speaking less of my native language because I did a lot of extracurricular activities and stayed longer at school than most kids. Because I only spoke my native language at home or at church, I developed an accent similar to how others develop accents when speaking a different language. People tend to point it out often, but I am still capable to read and write. Being bilingual keeps me connected to my communities as well as keep in touch and in communication with others from all around the world. It helped me develop a sense of belonging but also pride in my culture and identity.

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Key takeaways from this week's lecture are that trauma does not mean you are broken or that you need fixing, it is an overwhelming stimulus that impacts the way a person regulate their emotions, so we should be generous to ourselves as we are products of our ability to be resilience when times get tough. Understanding how trauma can affect young children can help us be more patient and open-minded to support children who have experienced or are experiencing trauma. Since trauma can affect how their brain function, we as educators and as adults should provide support and guidance for children without resorting to discipline because of misbehavior. Their misbehavior may be a result of trauma, so we should look more to the bigger picture and allow expression and communication for the children to be open about.