James Bao
Bio
Fulfilling my childhood dream of being a “published” author through Vocal Media Plus #gohuskies
Stories (13/0)
To Pimp a 6th Grader's Butterfly
My middle school had 3 PE teachers who all taught in tandem- for some reason I remember all 3 of them watched over us during PE class sessions. I was assigned to Mr. Wiles's class during 6th grade. Mr. Wiles was this beefy, bearded man with a bit of a paunch, and I don't remember much about what he was like as a PE teacher. I remember two things about what he was like as a teacher. The first is that he was fired for being caught with porn on his work laptop, which happened after I graduated from middle school. The second is that he left a comment on my first trimester report card- "James has leadership potential". When my dad saw that comment, he said it seemed like I could be a role model for other students in the class. I didn't think anything about my conduct in class was remarkable or out of the ordinary- all I did was try to follow instructions and not half-ass the exercises, even though I wasn't particularly athletic and was one of the slower people during the mile run. During my middle school career, I figured he must've mixed me up with our family friend who was in Green Hall (this had happened to us before when we were in the same swim class in elementary school). That kid was the bossy and commanding dude who commanded respect from the other kids of Chinese immigrants in our family friends' circles; he seemed like much more of a natural leader than me. But for whatever reason, the designation was stuck on my report card, and that's basically my only positive memory of Mr. Wiles.
By James Baoabout a month ago in Confessions
An Offering of Chili Mango
Back in 2019, the December sun shone weakly through post-rainstorm clouds on the Embarcadero boardwalk of San Francisco. Me and two of my college friends were visiting our mutual high school friend Phil* in the Bay Area, who had graciously offered to host us at his studio complex in the City for the weekend. After Ubering around to Chinatown for dim sum and Twin Peaks in the early afternoon, the four of us moseyed on over to the Embarcadero to walk around amidst the tourist crowds before taking our bus back to Davis.
By James Baoabout a year ago in Confessions
The One About Trader Joe's Chili Spiced Dried Mango
DISCLAIMER: I personally have nothing against raisins- in fact I enjoy eating them as a snack. I only used raisins as an example because I know a lot of people don’t like them and I figured it would make it easier for other people to relate to my story. More importantly, I love mango and almost anything that has mango in it, and chili spiced dried mango is one of my favorite things about Trader Joe’s, so I wanted to give a shoutout to TJ for their dried fruit products.
By James Bao2 years ago in Confessions
