Descriptive Essay : Buddha Sits On Top Of Your Living Room Bookshelf Watching Everything
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Buddha sits on top of your living room bookshelf watching everything in the world. Your mom prays to him every morning in Thai, sometimes if you come downstairs a little later than usual you’ll stumble upon her moment with Buddha. You don’t understand a single word of her whispers. The only Thai words you know are hello, hungry and bath when your mom would occasionally say them to you as a child. A whole language that is half of your identity remains unknown to you. Mom calls her siblings in Thailand often, usually Saturday mornings. You wake up to her voice alive and echoing up the stairs into your room. Her words roll around your ears with no sense of weight. You went to Thailand once when you were three but all that’s left is faint traces in your memory. The last hazy vision of your mother’s father before he passed and her side of the family linger in your head. This time you’re ten and you feel like an outsider in every sense. You fumble with chopsticks so your mom has to ask for a fork at every restaurant. You’ll achieve chopstick mediocrity soon enough.
Most of what you read and hear is Thai. Signs around Bangkok look so foreign to you they might as well be written in an alien language. Your mom serves as a translator everywhere you go; even for your Thai family when their broken English isn’t enough to construct what they’re trying to say. You love playing with your younger cousins at family gatherings; you even make up games together without speaking. The use of