Daniel Chen

It’s a quick 10-minute interview, but with the right questions, even the most hidden parts of a person are revealed. It’s a quick 10-minute conversation, but with the right words a person can end up learning more about themselves than the other person. It’s a quick 10-minute exchange, but I realized that I have more in common with a person whose name is the only thing I know than I thought. Because like me, Daniel Chen 

• Admits with a shaky voice that his greatest fear is being alone even when surrounded by people.
• Admits with a loving smile that the people he cherishes the most are his mom, dad and three sisters.
• Admits with pride that he’s passionate about video games, journalism, biology and food.
• Admits with a chuckle that his friends are people with whom he jokes, laughs and games. People who taught him to be a little bit louder.
• Admits with cloudy eyes that he might be dead in 20 years, but also might be a doctor…or a researcher, or journalist, or teacher, or musician. But he knows that he’ll have fun at 37, be a gamer at 37, talk to friends at 37, be the same person he is today, but just a little different.
• Admits with a bit of thought that at this very moment he feels…weird. Because he’s answering the most personal questions anyone’s ever asked him. Because talking about himself openly is uncomfortable. Because you aren’t taught to think about who you are as a person.  
• Admits with some reflection that a single word that describes him is addicted. Addicted to work, addicted to competition, addicted to success, addicted to this lifestyle. 

Admits as a joke but also with a bit of seriousness that he’s addicted “to the game of Life.”

By Athira Nair