Kristin Lin

This interview with Kristin Lin was conducted on June 29, 2019 in Hudson, New York as part of the Oral History Summer School where both the narrator and interviewer were students.  Kristin Lin is an editor at The On Being Project, a media and public life initiative in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  Before that she lived in the Bay Area after graduating from the University of Chicago with a degree in political science.  In this interview she describes growing up as a second generation Asian-American in Dallas, Texas.  She talks about the ways that she felt different from the people around her and how this may have lead to her interest in learning about other people’s stories through journalism and oral history.  She talks about her memories of the Buddhist Temple where she spent a lot of time as a child and how her upbringing in a Buddhist Taiwanese family has informed her view of herself and the world, including some ways that may not serve her.  Kristin discusses her relationships with her parents, and her deep love and respect for her younger brother and sister.  She describes her current circle of friends and what they each bring into her life.  Kristen talks about being in a ‘quarter-life crisis’ in which she experiences a sense of uncertainty about her future.

This interview may be of interest to people who want to hear about growing up Asian-American, growing up with a sense of being different, Taiwanese Buddhism, deep connections with friends, and the post-college experience of contemporary young adults.