On the first day of high school, my English class played a round of “two truths and a lie”, a game in which you state three declarations and your peers have to guess which statements are true and false. When it was my turn, I loudly declared my truths and a lie. “I was born in Korea, I love math, or my mom’s english name is Rosa Park”. If it wasn’t obvious, the lie was that I love math. I was never the Einstein or Pythagoras of my class, struggling in literally every math class that I’ve taken. Ironically enough, I’ve always excelled in English class, even though I’m an immigrant (I was in ESL until the 5th grade)! Shouldn’t it be the opposite? Okay, enough of that; I know you’re here to read about Mrs. Rosa Park.

If you’re wondering about my mom’s english name, it’s a funny (but long) story. My mother is quite the woman; first a ballet teacher, then a high school teacher, and currently a businesswoman. My mom’s maiden name is Park, and when she moved to the United States, she went by the eclectic name of “Elsa”. Yep, inspired by THE Elsa from THE modern classic, Frozen. As groundbreaking as the queen of Arendale was, I was rather confused by her peculiar choice to go by the icy Disney Princess. Besides, what kind of name is Elsa?

When she moved to her new (and current job) last year, she wanted a new name; something less odd than Elsa, but something that would stand out from the rest of the crowd. A “Where’s Waldo” moment, perhaps. It wasn’t until the first week of June when I found out about her new English name, when I found her business card with her new name- Rosa Park. I thought I had read something wrong.

To this day, I never questioned her name directly. But if Rosa Parks was to read this story, I hope that she would laugh. After all, my mother pays homage to Rosa in her daily life.