Mom: She's the first one from her side of the family to move from Korea to the U.S. and she doesn't speak very much English. Between the language barrier and her workaholic nature (9am - 11pm 7 days a week), I was never close to her. She would laugh it off when, as a child, I told her I missed her. These days, I see her infrequently because she still works so much, and she spends most of that time reminiscing how she used to dress me up like a doll when I was a toddler.

Dad: Mixed bag here. He's the influence on both my tech side and my playful side, and for that I adore him. However, due to a nasty temper and rare moments of sexual abuse, he was always scary to be around alone. Yet I was still protective, telling others I had fallen while rollerblading if they asked me about bruises. He left when I was 17 and never came back. We're in touch these days and he's proud of who I have become, but I keep my distance. Those rare moments did a number on me in my adult life.

I have an older half-sister from my mom's side who lives with her. We grew up alone together since our parents worked all the time. Our babysitters were basically our math tutors and piano teachers, every day after school. She's mentally handicapped and prone to telling wild lies that sound very similar to the soap operas she grew up watching. Recently she's been diagnosed with having audio hallucinations. When we speak, it's mostly just her spinning various stories about how some prince in another country plans to marry her, same as when we were kids. She doesn't hear me.

Religion: I was raised Buddhist, but I think my dad didn't like the idea of me bowing or "acting asian" in any way. He's a good old southern boy, army guy, raised in Arkansas. After he left, my mother became zealously Christian, and I attended bible studies 3 days a week. It never really took though, since I recognized there was an emotional high that would quickly fade. As an adult, I follow Buddhism in a philosophical way, but I don't consider it to be my religion. My spirituality is a conversation with the universal and myself.

I don't have much in the way of family, and I assume that's why I'm such a loner today. I used to read encyclopedias for fun to pass the time, and so reading became my escape. As a family, we were rarely ever together so there wasn't much as far as shared ideals.