It is my senior year of college and it feels like my senior year of high school again. I am looking at different post-graduation opportunities, all of them in Minnesota (my home state), except for one of them, which is located in Hong Kong. I shared with my dad about this potential opportunity in Hong Kong, and then we’re back to where we started: you are a girl, you are going to get pregnant, you might get kidnapped or killed, and the list goes on.

After leaving home to Colorado College, I thought that those fears and concerns that my Dad once shared with me during my senior year of high school were gone. But no, they still live inside him everyday. Yes, I am a girl. Yes, as a girl I biologically have ovaries and can get pregnant. Yes, I can definitely get kidnapped in Hong Kong, in the United States, and basically anywhere. And if these are the reasons to stop me, then how do I even live?

So square one, I am back to choosing between home and elsewhere, between roots and wings.