Min Jin Lee

She picked me.

Yeah.

And I read that this just happened to be your last day at the job and the evening before you left for college.

And then you spent the rest of the afternoon walking around the museum thinking, how cool am I?

Tina Turner choose me.

I am the shit.

I am the shit.

I think what really happened was that she just wanted a more private space to buy a book, but I felt pretty special.

I had a kind of an unpopular cash register in the back, but you know, you got to take the wins when you can.

Absolutely.

There you have it.

Min, you were born in Seoul, South Korea, and your family came to the United States in 1976 when you were seven years old.

Do you have many memories of your time in Korea?

Oh, yeah.

I think when I think about my childhood, I really think of it as all being in Korea.

And then once I came to America, you would think that my childhood would have continued.

But it felt so adult once I came to America.

And even though I was only seven, when I think about sort of innocent, very...

foolish, kind of goofy, fun, playful things I think of Korea.

But when I think about America, I remember feeling very aware of my surroundings and having to survive.