When I was in elementary school, I used to get free lunch. For those of you who might not know, free lunch was pretty much a big label on your forehead proclaiming "my family is too poor to pay!" I was always so embarrassed and would insist on having my mom pack lunch instead. When my dad finally landed a corporate job and we made too much money for me to freeload off the public school system, I changed my tune and instead wanted to buy lunch every day. No longer did I want my mom to pack "embarrassing" asian lunches since all the kids at school were eating chicken strips or pizza or spaghetti with meat sauce.

I was a pretty dumb and impressionable kid, but weren't we all?