McPrecht

Learned coping

One of my earliest memories is of my babajon. Since my mamajan babysat me growing up in Texas, I saw him a lot. They lived in a planned community called Tara in Colleyville, with a metal gate at the entrance and everything. Tara was one of the first communities that sprouted up to appeal to those…

My mom wanted me to be white

My mom wanted me to be white. I think my dad did too without knowing that that was what he was doing. She would remind me to fit in, even comparing Persians to Mexicans. “The difference is that Persians adapt to the culture, Mexicans keep their culture and refuse to change…

Spring cleaning: Erased

I played a concert in the summer of my junior year of college where the closing band was a middle-aged Metallica cover band. They looked at us like we were lost. I had a deer-tail tuft of hair up front that I dyed various colors. At the time it was green and one member of the cover…

Selling myself

I look at my inbox and I feel the heartburn swell. I look at the spreadsheet I created for my job search and my scalp becomes itchy. I try to breath, to keep myself calm before sitting down to write this piece and I feel like a fraud. Identity is a difficult thing when you’re searching for work. I’ve…

Spring cleaning: Day 1

There’s so much Korea in my drawers. Receipts from K-Rail, programs from various cultural and historical spaces, notes from former students, and two laminated mentions I got in the Korea Herald have been left to pile up. Some bags were time capsules from 2010, our first year in Seoul, and…

The cost

There was recently a hiccup in our healthcare and we weren’t covered. To fix the problem meant waiting a couple weeks for paperwork and after that there was another mistake leading to more paperwork and another delay. In that time I needed to buy insulin and test strips. With the insurance we are supposed to…

No man’s land

There are many companies who are making a concerted effort to rebrand. Many because they need an update for the 21st century, others because they never had a consistent brand in the first place. No matter the reason, 2016 appears to be the year of the rebrand, and as a copywriter that can be a…

The sweetness and pain of life

Sukha, duhkha and yoga