My neighbor Suzie and I share a garden bed between our driveways.

I wanted to plant vegetables, but my mother disapproved. She said I should match what Suzie had planted on her side. Since I was skeptical of my mom’s unwritten rules of garden etiquette, I asked Suzie what to plant.

You never got over Shakespearean sonnets in high school.

Sister Solange moved liked defensive lineman William “The Fridge” Perry.

Folk tales teach you how to behave.

They’re how invisible rules of culture are passed on. But when you are a “third culture” kid (mixed identity with parents of one culture raised in a different culture), the rules you’re taught may not work for the culture in which you live.

As a Bitcoin investor, do you think studying financial history is stupid?

I said no, and I thought I was going to die.

It was the first time I could remember saying no to my mother as a kid, and I was terrified. We’d traveled to New York City from Guadeloupe to visit family, and it had been a long day running errands.