Q & Answer, part one.

What was it like growing up in the bible belt where most of the population is white? Do you ever see yourself living back in TN?

Restricting. Home and family is in Tennessee, but most certainly not my future abode. I could point out specific reasons, but it ultimately comes down to simply not feeling a fit.

What three careers do you honestly see yourself having?

University professor, given I have enough will to trudge through the bitch-work that is required of lower-level profs before getting tenure. This is the path I've been planning for the longest period of time.

Given the burgeoning demand for doctoral statisticians and the range of compelling problems I could solve with a job in industry, this is an increasingly attractive option. Statistics has applications in everything from mapping genes to modeling environmental phenomena to evaluating education policy. I'd be spoiled for choice in choosing projects to work on.

Food writer or professional eater. Something in which I'm required to eat food, create food, make judgments on food, or think about food for the majority of my day. These will always be things I do on the side, but who knows? perhaps an opportunity will somday arise, and I can live the dream in the style of Anthony Bourdain.

Do you think it is okay that fine arts like opera, ballet, classical music, and museums cost so much money for people to audience?

Of course I don't like it. It is always better for more people to have more exposure to these types of things, and lowering the costs of admission would aid that effort. But like anything else, good things cost money, and actors, singers, dancers, and musicians, as well as set designers, choreographers, writers, and directors have to be paid in order to keep them in the business. Raise the prices, you hurt the audience; lower the prices, you hurt the industry. You could ask the government to subsidize fine arts, but that doesn't seem like a viable option at present.

Are you grateful your parents raised you in America? Or do you feel like you were sort of robbed because you were not raised in China?

I don't really spend much time thinking about the what-ifs or the could-have-beens. I certainly don't feel robbed of anything. Growing up in America has undoubtedly given me a better education and a standard of living I wouldn't have had in China, but I don't doubt that had I been raised in China, I would have used whatever resources I was given in much the same way.

What are you doing in life, and why are you enjoying it?

These two questions are the same. What I am doing in life, by definition, I enjoy. I try to learn about everything I can get my hands on, and I place great importance on the warmth of friendships and the love of family.