The Calgary Journal
The Calgary Journal


I’m a university student. I live away from my parents, pay rent and utilities monthly, have student loans and work part-time — and I am worried.

“Guys, you should go on two dates per week.”

Imagine hearing that said by a church leader over the pulpit to your congregation during a sacrament meeting when you're just trying to become a better person.

When I was younger, I was most aware of my race when my parents cooked. We would have eggs and bacon for breakfast, tourtière for lunch and Gong Bao chicken for dinner — it was like having access to an international buffet at home. 

It wasn’t until a family trip to Aruba when, for the first time, I felt stereotyped. We were on the resort shuttle and a woman was on a tangent about how Chinese people were all money-grabbers, mimicking the accent of an Asian man she met that day.

Immediately after Mimi Khúc gave birth to her daughter eight years ago, she fell into severe postpartum depression. While many mothers spend the first several months after giving birth fighting to stay awake, Khúc spent that time trying to figure out how to survive.