how do we care for each other

first essay for Mở's Writing On The Net 30-Day Challenge!

Hi friends!

So glad to finally be able to brush the dust off my Substack after so long, especially for Mở! For some context, I’m currently enrolling in the third iteration of their fantastic course and community “Writing On The Net“. Among many intriguing activities we do here at WOTN, I have decided to take a stab at their 30-day writing challenge, for which I have to write and publish one writing every day for 30 days. No promises as to whether I will be able to execute this challenge successfully, but fingers crossed that I can!

I wanted to share with you a short, free-form essay I had written during my time at Writing Co-lab - Non-Fiction Essay class, which was taught by the amazing Brian Gresko. I had had a chance to read my draft in front of my peers in class and received super helpful feedbacks from them. (thanks so much, miss you all!)

The prompt for the essay was:

“Free write, but instead of writing around the I, write into the WE. What changes when you are writing as a WE. Who are the others you are including in your plurality?”

(do scroll down after the essay for updates on what I have been up to and my favorite links! :) )

Care as We

---

Can you come pick me up? I'm hurting so bad, my bones feel like they're made of glass. This market is a labyrinth of noise and chaos, and I'm lost in the middle of it all. 

Do you need me to type it out for you, to translate the words that get stuck in their way to your ears? I'll do it gladly, with fingers that dance across the keys like they're making music. And please, never feel like you have to apologize for asking me to repeat myself. I know that hearing can be a struggle, and I'm here to support you.

Let's find a quiet place, where the world falls away and we can just be. A place where I won't be sick, where I won't feel like I'm drowning in my own exhaustion. Maybe we can go to that cafe down the street, where the murmur of conversation is like a gentle hum. Or we can stay in and co-exist through screens, sharing stories and laughter and the warmth of a cup of honey tea.

When I think about access, I think about a radical act of love.

What does it mean to shift from our ideas of access (whether disability, economic, intellectual, etc) from an individualistic, dreadful chore to a collective responsibility that is maybe deeply joyful?

What does it mean for our communities? What does it mean for our movements for disability rights and justice? What does it mean for ourselves and our own lived experiences of disability and chronic illness?

What does it mean to grapple with concepts of softness and strength, vulnerability and pride, asking for help and not - ideas that are so profoundly shaped by race, class and gender?

If collective access is a revolutionary love, how do we learn to love each other? How do we learn to do the hard work of collective care that lifts us instead of abandons us, with all the ways in which care might be complicated?

Do you have any chamomile? And any spare Tylenol you can bring over? I’m flaring; inside my body it feels like the storm is raging and everything else fades away in its wake. Can you pick up some groceries on your way home and drop them off at my door? I'm bed-ridden, trapped in this body that feels like it's betraying me at every turn. 

I'll help fill out the job applications, when the weight of constant rejections feel too heavy to bear. You’ll help me find a new place to live, even when I dread the rising cost of just existing. I'll send you a list of accessible events on Google Maps. I hope they have the ramps, beautiful wheelchair ramps. Let’s also share so we can afford ASL for the event? I will send you their interpreter list too.

Oh, I love how we love. I love how we care. With you here, I can make this through.

#wotn3 #day1

What I’m up to:

1. Still living in Vancouver and just got my Canadian PR card! (for my US-based friends, it’s like getting a green card in the US). Planning to make some trips soon!

2. Visited Montreal with my mom and fell in love with the city the moment I set my foot on it. Got to reunite with my childhood friend also!

3. Just recently had my foot’s bone broken and have to wear a walker boot and use crutches. But do not worry, the pain is minimal now and I’m healing well! I’m incredibly grateful to have people in my life going so far as to care for almost all my needs when the pain was too much to bear. They are one of the many reasons this essay existed in the first place :”)

4. Besides Mở’s WOTN, I also recently took two classes (on make-up and ASL) with my girlfriend and they have been absolute blast so far!

5. Mentoring. I took on mentoring for aspiring software professionals at Viet Tech Mentorship program and recently wrapped up my mentoring for Kidspire Vietnam. The team I mentored with my friend Jessica made it as one of semi-finalists for Technovation competition!

Links I dig:

1. Thanh - one of Reboot 2023 fellows and a great friend of mine - recently posted his vlogs for his Singapore trip (and doing cool things!!!). I always love his videos because the filmography??? The music??? The tender captions??? Huge slay.

2. In lieu of Pride month, I adore this beautiful (and very gay) rendition of “One Day More“.

3. Did you know Mechanical Turk workers are using AI to automate being human??? A fascinating read among many recent AI discourses.

4. This tweet and its replies.

5. Another intriguing AI piece, but this is for OpenAI’s Whisper - automatic speech recognition system.

6. This tweet of basically me applying for jobs.

---

See you tomorrow! :”)

#wotn3 #day1