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BS: And then, I guess, moving on then. So part of this process of a political awakening and stuff, I imagine, so, where did you go to college, and was there a strong presence of Asian culture compared to your hometown? And what sparked your interest to learn more about your ethnicity and reconnect with your identity? Was there any particular group of people, professors, that type of thing?

HP: So, I went to private women's liberal arts college in central Minnesota. It's called College of Saint Benedict, they're co-educational with an all-male university, which is Saint John's University, which is better known. And maybe because Saint John's University out of Jamaica, New York, people tend to think of that as well. But anyway, so I went there. There were more API students out there, a lot of them are Hmong. So, I hung out a lot with those friends and lot of international students from Barbados and the Caribbean. I am so sorry, this cat is driving me crazy. Hopefully, this doesn't ruin the recording. But can you hear her?

BS: Not really.

HP: Oh, good. Oh, good. Oh, wonderful. Okay. So, I will just keep pressing on. But it was there, I got involved with the "Asia club." I mean, there wasn't really a Korean American group or an Asian American group. Because a lot of those folks came out of like Minneapolis, St. Paul metropolitan area. And so, you have a lot of prep, high school preparatory kids coming down. A lot of privilege. So, I always joke that I went there, because they gave me the most amount of money, and thanks to affirmative action. I'm pretty sure that's a big part of why I went there. Because the scholarship was just so, it was hard to say no to, even though it wasn't the environment I really wanted to be in. So really hanging out with those folks, even though they're Hmong, but think sharing that experience of being in a rural area and being at a particular school -- and a lot of folks actually wound up transferring out of there. I was only on campus for about two years. So, I did what's called Running Start here, is a similar program where you -- right, Running Start, is that right? -- where you take post-secondary classes when you're like a junior or senior? Well, I left my senior year of high school, like peace out. And then I also did summer school just to get the hell out of there. I just needed to know that I could graduate with my undergraduate degree and get out. And my stop... my first stop was going to be Korea.

BS: Okay, yeah, definitely.

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