<Begin Segment 7>

TI: Well, in terms of, how about, like, academically, grades, how would you do in school?

PJH: I was okay. I think I was above average, but I knew that we were tracked. I could see the, at least at grade, third grade, fourth grade, fifth grade, that the tracking, and I saw that I was in the lower track. And then by fifth grade, fourth grade I went into the middle track, and then by sixth and seventh grade I went into the upper track. That's all I remember.

TI: Any, like, extracurricular activities at school?

PJH: Let's see. Along with the dancing, my mom also, not decided, but I think, like, one of the neighborhood girls also wanted to learn how to roller skate, so she and I went to the roller rink and maybe about two, two and a half years I took roller skating lessons at the rink, how to dance the waltz and the cha cha, on skates, and do a little bit of figure skating on roller skates. So my mom had me do that. Those are the two things that I remember up through eighth grade, seventh, eighth grade. High school became a different thing. It became more school activities. I think I was still dancing just for a couple years, and then a letter girl with marching band. Irvington, I was the "I." And imagine trying to stay in line with a long line of girls. [Laughs] That was kind of a time where I still felt very shy and, but that kind of got me to interact with a large number of other schoolkids. I would say that that was considered like the nerds, the marching band, music kids along with the letter kids, as opposed to the cheerleaders and the jocks. So this was, like, in my sophomore year or so. And then I became a cheerleader. [Laughs] And that was kind of like this new opening of confidence that I did not seek to go and become a cheerleader, just one of the cheerleaders was a very good friend of mine, who did not have an attitude. But she taught me how to jump, and she goes, "Wow, you can jump high. Wow, that's really wide. I think you should try out for being a cheerleader." And I go, "Oh," in back of my head, "they'll never pick me 'cause I'm Japanese." And I remember going through my brother's old school, annual school books and, were there any Japanese? Were there any? No, none, none. They'll never take me. They'll never take me. Well, during the tryouts I guess I wowed them over with my jumps. Not that I could really project, but I must've been jumping, had a lot of energy, so I became the VJ, or not the varsity, but the younger...

TI: The junior varsity?

PJH: The junior varsity, yeah, cheerleader, and so that was my junior year. Senior year I became a varsity cheerleader, so in a way it's kind of like this little increment of acceptance that I started to feel like, oh, I'm feeling better. I'm feeling better about myself.

TI: So by the time you were a senior in high school you're now a cheerleader.

PJH: Right.

TI: Do you, do you feel like you're, so how do you feel about being Japanese at this point?

PJH: I didn't, I didn't know. I still didn't know. I didn't have a boyfriend, so all along that time, again, "Oh, nobody will like me. I'm having all these crushes on other guys, oh, they'll never look at me." So there was kind of that hesitancy to be really social. Even in my junior year I remember my mother taking me out for Chinese food because that was the night that they were having the junior prom and I wasn't going, and she was just trying to console me. She knew my spirits were dashed, so that was something that, again, didn't make me feel confident. Yeah.

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.