MEMOIR: INTERVIEW WILLIAM WU I 'm a first generation Asian-American. I was born in Lima, Peru, right before my parents came to America from China, and we moved to America when I was one. Growing as a first generation American, my parents worked a lot. I can 't say that I wasn 't loved, but my bond with my parents was weak because I was always home alone, being babysat by others, or going out because they had to work. As a child, I would do things like steal from my mother 's wallet and use the money on those claw machines with the stuffed animals. A few times, I poured out all of the body soap and shampoo into the drain. Looking back to it now, I realize that I only did these things because I wanted attention from my parents. I remember one …show more content…
But - one of the things related to sports is that a lot of people get injured, and they get into depression and they hit rock bottom. When I was 16, I pulled a muscle while I was training. There was a tear in the muscle, and surgery was too expensive and could possibly cause long-lasting problems, so I decided to wait for it to heal. At that point, I didn 't have enough money and help to take care of my injury and help continue my tennis career once I got better. Sports are expensive, especially if you want to go on a national/international level. You have to pay for a nutritionist, physical therapist, coach, all the people that support you. It took two to three years for the muscle to really fully heal, and by that time, it was too late. And when I came to this realization that my dream of becoming a professional tennis player would never come true, I went through the process of overcoming depression and grief. There was a slight moment of "Now I can 't play tennis, what should I do? What am I supposed to do with my life right now?" My coping mechanism was coaching tennis. Those two years were the toughest years of my life, filled with sorrow and disappointment. The healing process was long and slow. But, after all the wounds healed and there was only the occasional aching of the muscle left, I realized that life isn 't filled with dead ends. Even if you think that there 's only one path for you, you can always stray away from the path if that 's what