T-Wolf

Growing up in a Vietnamese-American household, there were a lot of ingredients I could find in my kitchen that I would come to understand weren’t common across my peers’ households. The flavors and staples of cuisine I would come to use in my own cooking and dining, once I was old enough to learn, weren’t always the same as my friends.

Being an artistic creator is such an integral part of my life that it’s become near impossible to imagine who I’d be without it. I’ve dreamed of getting to write stories and fantastical worlds for the past ten years, ever since I learned it was something I could make a genuine career out of- but I am a writer far beyond the moments I sit down in front of a blank page or document.

A year ago, I wrote a submission for the Fall 2022 issue of This Girls Story that captured my painfully honest feelings about home back then, and still captures my painfully honest feelings about home now. Titled Downpour on South 1st Street, it was a creative essay about the difficult love and connection I felt for my hometown of Austin, Texas.

Video games have always fascinated me as a medium of storytelling. Though I remain a literary storyteller at heart, my imagination’s always been drawn to the interactive nature of how the consumer has an active hand in pushing the story forward in a game.

Though I’ve often wanted to be a considerate person, teenhood has often made that far from easy to fulfill. Amidst the turmoils of shifting from one phase of life to the next, it never feels like there’s enough time to slow down, whilst being bombarded with choices and questions of where the hell I’m headed for another decade of life- and then some more.

For the longest time, dancing was an activity for the popular and not socially awkward population to me. When younger, I’d watch movies of dance scenes or read stories of intricate fantasy balls, always of such grandeur and heightened energy.

From peers, mentors, teachers, and friends, I've often gotten comments on how mature I am for my age. I'm logistical when delegating tasks or work, realistic when reflecting on my progress in mental and physical health, determined to fulfill a future career path, and very good at offering advice to those in personal conflicts.

first learned about visual art artificial intelligence programs about a year ago, when I discovered one by the name of Wombo Art online. It was a website that could take word prompts from a browser, combine it with an art style of choosing, and generate a picture based off of both. Though I was skeptical of how effective it’d be at first, I decided to try it out- and the very first prompt I ever put in was my own name, T-Wolf.

Throughout all my years of living, I’ve been taught that my family, my ancestors, and my people, are always by my side.

Some days, when all is too still for time, I can see my heartbeat. Usually it’s right over my chest, in the slight wave of the shirt I’m wearing. It’s almost like a ripple of water, the way the beat expands throughout the fabric, then settles again.