Autobiography
"One of the keys to happiness is a bad memory."--Rita Mae Brown
My name is Yoon Ha Lee, and for those of you who can't tell (understandably), I'm female. My parents live in South Korea. My younger sister is Yune Kyung Lee. I married in 2002, and no, I didn't change my name; we like it as it is. We have a daughter. Any questions?
I've lived in too many places, though not as many as others I've known (see the statistics), and have moved residence an average of every two years, in Korea or the U.S. This appears unlikely to change in the near future. Don't talk to me about bridging culture gaps. The result of being raised in two cultures, as far as I can tell, is (a) being expected to function perfectly in both and (b) feeling comfortable in neither. (My sister's essay "Odyssey: Abroad and Back" on Third Culture Kids is relevant.)
I've also visited, however briefly: Canada; Washington, D.C.; the Niagara Falls; various places in Korea, including Gyeongju, Busan and Incheon; and Athens, Greece.
"You must believe in God in spite of what the clergy say."--Benjamin Jowett
I'm a Protestant Christian. No church (but we may be heading to an Episcopalian one). I've been mistaken for an agnostic/atheist because I believe there's no scientific proof for a Higher Power's existence. For me, religion isn't science, or how the world works; it's about how you live in the world and what you make of your life. I find religious intolerance personally puzzling, historically inevitable, and in general, frustrating.
"History teaches us that men and nations behave wisely once they have exhausted all other alternatives."--Abba Eban
I graduated with a B.A. in math (and, miraculously, distinction in all subjects) from Cornell University and was at Stanford University's teacher education program (STEP) for an M.A. in math education. I student-taught at a public high school in San Jose. I entered Cornell as a prospective history major, almost majored in computer science, then realized I liked math better. My math advisor was Prof. Marshall Cohen, a really cool guy. If you want to know why anyone would study math, see Why Math? If you want to know why anyone would teach, see the related Why Teaching?
At Cornell I took courses in: math (algebra, analysis, topology); history (Western civilization, American Civil War, Imjin War/Korean War, WWII in Europe, War/Citizenship/Identity in Ancient Greece and Rome, history of science); government (Causes of War); philosophy (a freshman writing seminar on paradoxes and perception); physics (high school math-based special relativity and chaos, mechanics, E&M); computer science (basic programming through algorithms); narrative writing; a year of German; and intensive Latin.
I've worked in a dining hall, the Science & Technology Studies office, Cornell's engineering registrar, the Writing Walk-in Service, and the Math Support Center. I taught briefly at a public high school.
"People in love, it is well known, suffer extreme conceptual delusions; the most common of these being that other people will find your condition as thrilling and eye-watering as you do yourselves."--Julian Barnes
The things in life I find interesting can almost all be found on this website or at Verba Vita Est, my LiveJournal weblog. My life's passion is writing science fiction and fantasy; I read a good deal of it, too. I am blessed with a caring family and the local public library. In the future I hope to settle down somewhere with enough space for computer games and books, and a real garden. Maybe even a couple cats.
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