Childhood
Young Elena and her parents
First living in the South End, Elena and her parents lived in a few different apartments. She described living on Tremont Street in the South End as “a cool, interesting place as it was not gentrified yet”. It was here where she attended the Mackey Elementary School. Elena did not know a word of English, but “did not cry when her mom dropped her off for school” because she was “curious”. One of her key memories of this school was getting her lunch taken by the other kids and having the teachers laugh at her when she was trying to explain to them what happened because of the language barrier. As a result, Elena’s parents ended up moving her to the Quincy School in Chinatown that had all Chinese students learning English. This helped limit bullying, as well as helped Elena learn the language.
When bussing began in Boston, Elena changed schools once again. She got sent to the Kent School in Charlestown, which was mainly white at the time. On her daily commutes to school with other Chinese children, there were rocks thrown at the school bus. Because of her age, Elena was not very aware of what was going on. However, she still has a lot of good memories tied with this school as “she made her first good friends” and had the honor of “bringing home the class hamster home”.
As she grew older, Elena basically “attended a new school every year”. She attended middle school in the North End, and took an exam that resulted in her getting into the Latin School for high school. Finally, she attended Tufts University for college. When deciding between Georgetown and Tufts, she thought it would be best to stay close to home. While she enjoyed her college experience, Elena wishes “she had more guidance going into it”.