Min Jin Lee

And I loved making things.

So I kind of thought, oh, maybe I should do something with that.

But I knew that I couldn't really make a living as a cabinetmaker in New York City, or it didn't even occur to me.

So I thought, maybe I'll become an architect.

I love design, I love art, and I thought, oh, I would like to build homes.

I didn't know what architects did.

I thought they designed houses.

And of course, I met real architects and I realized, oh, that's not what real architects really do unless you are much, much older and much more powerful.

So, you design parking lots or the corner of a parking lot or a ramp or something.

And I was like, oh, maybe I don't want to be an architect.

And I thought I would maybe major in economics because I thought that I needed a stable job.

And I took an economics class and I know nothing about graphs.

I just couldn't understand pictures and data being presented in a different way.

So I thought I should do something else.

So I ended up majoring in history because it sounded very solid.

When you were 16, a friend had a blood drive and after you gave blood, the Red Cross sent you a letter that stated, please don't ever give blood again because you are a chronic hepatitis B carrier.

Is that when you first learned that you had a liver disease?

Yeah.

Just like from a letter?

Yeah.