This is a very unique Mother’s Day for me. Our film, which is in many ways a tribute to immigrant mothers, is still in theaters & still teaching me things about myself and my family even after so many years of working on it. One of the many things I was hoping to explore with the film was a deeper understanding of who my mother was, outside the context of me; within her own context. She was the first of her family to immigrate to America. She loved dancing/singing/performing but majored in computer science because it was more practical. She is a big dreamer, always scheming up new projects, new businesses, new lives. She has told me recently she didn’t really have the desire to become a mother, there were so many things she wanted to be and explore, but she had to make a conscious choice to put that all on hold, to raise the four of us the best she could. Often, when I am pinching myself, asking myself how I ended up lucky enough to be where I am (which is happening a lot these days), I think to a moment in my life when I was in 2nd grade. We had moved to a new school system and my mom was nervous I wasn’t thriving in class. She read a story I had written in second grade and compared it to a story I had written the year before and was terrified that my creativity was being crushed in the large class size (looking back now I can blame undiagnosed ADHD). My mom pulled me out of school and began homeschooling me herself. She gave me 2 of the best years of education I could ever ask for, all by herself. She ordered all of the text books, invented art/science projects, took us on field trips. I was allowed to explore whatever I was excited about (at the time: mythology and US presidents haha) and i thrived, getting a full year ahead in almost every subject. This was the beginning of my mom being the strongest advocate for my creativity. When it came time to apply to college she even told me to go to film school (like a true teenager I didn’t listen to her). It is not lost on me, how rare it is to have an Asian immigrant parent who actively PUSHED their child into the arts. Happy Mother’s Day, mom. I’m still discovering new ways to appreciate you.