I Seek Personal Validation by Making Eye Contact with Asian Parents Touring Campus

As I walk down Locust Walk, pretending I’m going to class, I see that there are multiple groups of what seems to be families touring campus. I make eye contact with a middle-aged asian couple, and their faithful son, presumably a high school junior. The parents' eyes and faces are expressionless, but I know what they are thinking: “if this bland Chinese boy can get into this school, then so can our son. He has no excuse.”

I glance briefly at the son. His face is filled with dread, so I know he knows what his parents are thinking. I break eye contact. I’ve been there, I know how it feels, and I don’t want to be reminded of it.  

You always thought your cousin Kevin was a made up person to get you to study more. Now, you see that I am real. Very real. There are countless of us everywhere. I am “your cousin Kevin” now, bitch. And one day, you may even join us in the faceless, massless, but dreaded “your cousin Kevin” gang.