Amy Yao

There is a print hanging in Amy’s office with a quote from Nelson Mandela: “It only seems impossible until it’s done.” Whenever she feels discouraged, she looks at that and reminds herself that she has what it takes to find a path forward, no matter how difficult things seem. Resilience is built into her psyche. Was she born with it, or did she learn it from her parents, her role models? A mixture of both. At the root of resilience, she thinks, is creativity, imagination, and a fearlessness about living authentically. She had these in abundance at a young age. She was born in Taiwan, where most kids grew up being obedient and striving to fulfill their parents’ expectations. She was—well—different. While her classmates practiced piano, learned math equations, or played with Barbies, she was a tomboy, a rebel, and she spent most of her free time alone in the garden at the back of our house. It was her sanctuary, and she took full advantage of it. She craved being there. Every day after school, she threw down her book bag in the hallway and raced outside to see what had changed. She opened seeds, flowers, and fruits to observe their structures. She taught herself how to catch insects and butterflies without hurting them. She explored every corner of our garden and challenged herself to climb the trees faster than the day before. Frequently she lost track of time and got scolded for not doing her homework, but her adventures piqued her curiosity. She was never bored in the garden. When she was six years old, her teacher asked, “Who do you want to be when you grow up?” No surprise, her classmates planned to become doctors, architects, and engineers. She, however, had a different answer: “I want to study plants!” Her teacher gave her a puzzled look and asked her whether that was really a thing. “YES!” She said with complete confidence. To prove her point, she told her teacher her cousin studied plants in college. Okay, so the truth was she didn’t have a cousin in college, but her justification for that small creative fib was that if people weren’t studying plants at the time, they ought to be! It’s remarkable to her that her parents didn’t freak out about their wild child, but then they were remarkably creative and fearless too. Here’s one example: When she was nine years old, her dad lost his job, and they lived on savings alone for over a year while he looked for something new. One day, her parents announced that they were going to do an instant noodle contest. The plan was they’d eat all the different instant noodles on the market, rate them, and figure out which was their favorite. Her brother and she felt like it was the best thing that had ever happened to them. The criteria were simple—the noodles were ranked “best” if you liked how they tasted—but they still made an official contest poster, checked off the squares, and tracked all their votes for over a month. She doesn’t recall the winning brand—today she’d pick a savory short rib kind—but she does remember how super-excited they were about all of it. It wasn’t until she was much older that she understood they were having all those instant noodles because of lack of funds. What an incredibly creative idea to hold a contest, to turn their challenging times into something fun! Her parents not only sheltered them from feelings of inadequacy and shame, but they also modeled the power of resilience and gave them great memories. Nothing’s impossible!