Listening to popular artists like The Bravery, Cascada, and Linkin Park on iTunes, this 19-year-old stereotypical asian stares blankly at the screen of his laptop and types like he was born to press a couple hundred lettered-buttons per minute on a wireless keyboard. Born in Sacramento, CA, Danny Nguyen grew up in a Christian-oriented household consisting of his mom, dad and himself. His interests include sleeping, listening to dance music, watching anime, and other normal teenage things. He’s always wanted to get on the Freeway and see where fate takes him to, own a Katana or three and put his blueprints into action and see at least one of them run free in the real world.

At the tender age of 5, he was quickly exposed to drinking; his dad had come home drunk one day and because of that, it influenced him to become anti-drugs and drinking. He handed over a glass of cold milk to me while holding a can of soda in his other hand and calmly sipped out of the metal canister.

“Being drunk changes who a person is; I suppose I just picked up on the change and didn’t consider him my dad anymore.” This didn’t affect his relationship with his dad in the future as a whole, but changed him to instead, be commited to staying on guard when “the black-sheep uncle brings his liquor around.” He took another few sips from the pop, as did I with my milk.

Other than drinking and drugs, racism has affected Danny as well. He says,“...one of the basics of racism is "assuming" stuff about a group of people. The way I see it, from ANY race, there'll be the good and bad people. Judging a group of people from the bad apples is just wrong.” He went into the topic, saying that his mom who was Asian herself, did not like, well, Asians. He took a few more sips again before explaining the reason why she was like this.

“There was this whole backstabbing thing that happened with her and her friends, and even though she tried to get into friendship at some point, it'd seem she encountered the unscrupulous people. Even with dad... one of his own friends robbed the house after verifying no one was going to be home at some hour of the day. Now the Mom’s hugely paranoid about social ties to the extent she's trying to teach me the same mindset.” With a confident look on his face, he spoke, “Only thing I can say: Damn good thing THAT failed miserably.” He continues, “She still refuses to look past that illusion but instead look at people for who they really are. That type of bad experience has not enough grounds to damn the whole race to that negative stereotype.” He finished the rest of the pop and threw the can away while my glass of milk remained unfinished because I was too busy scribbling. He came back and closed the laptop.

Aside from these negative experiences, there were also quite a few that were memorable to him; for example, the Going-Away end of the year party from Math Club. He made it especially clear that one of the goals he was proud to successfully achieve was to be the president of the club for 3 years straight, so this party meant a lot to him. Every year, all of the Florin High Mathletes congregate at a pizza place to celebrate great achievements and the end of another year. The club advisor decides to start the awards ceremony.. of sorts. “To my surprise, I got presented with a plaque commemorating my 4 years of service to the Math club!”

“[I was] Quite happy actually... knowing that was the end of that particular chapter in life; and a bit sad, too. I put my all into Math Club for 4 years... and then stepping back to see what I had ACTUALLY done...(which was lead by example, thus inspiring other people along the way) .... well, let's just say I felt better than the valedictorian.” He grinned happily; this seemed to be a very accomplishing moment for him.

The interview ended on a good note, and just to make it official, I asked one final question: If you could end this interview, how would you end it? He laughed, and said, “In classic fashion... ‘I'll see you next time.’”