Posted by Quinn in
Washington DC.
Georgetown University and George Washington University had become the hub of foreign students. Young rich boys from Saudi Arabia, the Emirates, and Asia. Big Mercedes, Rolex watches, and lots of gold adorned the streets of the nation's capitol.
I was young, impressionable, and learned how to crash embassy parties in search of my prince. One afternoon, while sipping coffee at a bistro in Georgetown with some of my new-found friends, a new face joined our group. I felt a sudden flush of heat emerge from my cheeks. Something about his countenance was very different from the others: regal, eloquent, and conservative.
Our eyes met and held their gaze as he was introduced to those sitting around our table. I couldn't help but wonder for a moment, if this is what love at first sight felt like. Before I could account for the passing of the afternoon, the beautiful Asian man and I were having dinner together: alone.
Three months passed and it became clear, we had fallen deeply in love. Our customs were different, our families were different, but it didn't matter, we were blissfully in love and lived for every moment we could be together, until I received a phone call from an old friend. A call that would change my life forever. My friend, Miu, was from Japan and had apparently heard that I was dating a man from her country. With urgency in her voice, she invited me to lunch. It was over a hot cup of barley tea and a cold piece of sashimi that I learned the truth about my lover.
His family was among the most prominent and wealthy families in Japan. He was the first-born son of a family dynasty of many first born sons. He would take his father's place one day, and his parents would choose his education, his life, and of course, his wife.
With tears of disbelief, I confronted my Taro. I do not remember who spilled the darkest cloud of tears, but the proclamations of Miu were all true, and worse. My Taro would return to his country in one year, and take his rightful seat in the family dynasty. I, of course, would dissolve into his memories.
He gave me a choice: end the love affair immediately, of finish out his time of freedom together. I chose. We were inseparable until I drove him to his return flight, one year later.
And then, the most amazing news arrived. I was with child. My Taro's child.
As fate would have it, our child was born a boy. Taro's first-born son, the son born of freedom, the son that would never sit in his rightful place within the family dynasty: the rose amongst thorns.
My son grew up like many young boys today, without a father. Our son had been denied his birthright, his father's love, and financial support.
Thirty years later this beautiful boy has grown into a successful young man. His success, his life, his happiness were all a result of the freedoms that are the birthright of being born an American. His father, though a billionaire, continues to live out his life imprisoned within the confines of his birthright; arranged marriages that ended in divorce, a false heir - his second son - that lives in rebellion against his father who never again found love after that final kiss goodbye at the airport.
The Most Amazing Thing: is to be born an American, nothing equals freedom.
*Beauty Shop Buzz would like to thank MORE magazine for featuring our story in an up and coming issue, to be announced.
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