WEBVTT

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Nobody here mentioned
anything about cell phones,

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so I usually have that
as my cue to check--

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my mother-- see, I'm glad I did.

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My mother always
finds perfect timing

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and has done that before to give
me reports on her blueberries

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or her orange trees in
the middle of a reading.

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So, anyway, I had the
pleasure of visiting

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two amazing, dazzling
honors students today.

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I had two classes full
of honors students.

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Is anybody here
from those classes?

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Maybe not-- oh, yeah, they you
are scattered in the back, OK.

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I was just texting my husband
saying these students--

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I wish I could just take them
back with me to Mississippi

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and just buy them
all Southern cooking

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and we can just stuff
our faces there.

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They were so good.

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These students are so smart.

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I was telling them-- one
of the students asked

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how I became a poet.

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And it's always kind of--

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I feel sheepish
answering that question

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because I don't per se exactly.

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But I will say
that I did not know

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there were any living
poets until my junior year

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of college.

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My junior year of college I
did not know they existed.

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So those of you in
school, you already

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are light years ahead of me.

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When I told my parents on spring
break my junior year that I did

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not take the MCATs as planned--

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for the last 12 years
I was telling them

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I was going to be a
doctor just like them.

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And not only did I not
sign up for the MCATs,

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but that I also switched my
major from honors chemistry

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to English and that I also
wanted to study poetry.

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They wept, they cried, they--
and my stoic, Indian father who

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never, never ever cries, cried.

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And my mother didn't speak to
me for the rest of spring break.

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So it was-- and I can smile
and laugh about it now,

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but, to the students
here, it was

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one of the most difficult things
I had to do up until then.

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I was 20 years old, I
didn't need their approval,

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but I needed their approval a
little-- at least their-- just

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to know that they were not
terrified of what I was doing

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or not in complete
disapproval of my life.

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Just before I went back,
my father sat me down

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and it still gets me choked up.

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And he said-- he has a
really thick Indian accent,

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I can't do it.

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But he said, Aimee,
your mother and I

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have no idea what you're doing.

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But if you can promise us
that for the rest of your life

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you will feel like a
student on this planet,

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then you have our blessing.

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And I get choked up about
that because in 400 years

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of Nezhukumatathils,
nobody else except for me

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is in the humanities.

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They all are doctors, engineers,
something with business,

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that kind of thing.

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And now they're so embarrassing.

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Every time I do something--
they're retired in Florida--

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they're like look
it's my daughter.

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They're my biggest fans.

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When I did get a job
and I wasn't going

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to be begging for haiku change.

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If I read a haiku for
$0.25 on the corner,

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which is what they
thought really

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that I was going to be doing.

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I took them to New
York City, they

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had never been to New York
City ever, ever before.

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And they wanted-- they've been
talking about this restaurant,

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they've been talking
about this restaurant that

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sells an illegal dish and, of
course, it's in New York City.

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It's illegal because if it's not
cooked correctly, you will die.

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So they wanted to have this
and so it was very surreal.

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They had to sign a
waiver saying that they

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won't sue the restaurant.

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So here's my gift to them,
thank you for all your support.

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Now they might die here
before the end of this meal.

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This-- the Japanese have
a proverb about the soup

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and it goes-- those who eat
fugu soup are so, so stupid.

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But those who don't eat fugu
soup are even more stupid.

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This is called the
"Fugu Soup Blues."

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Nothing good can
come out of eating

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something named porcupine fish.

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It's like playing Russian
roulette when you cook it.

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The pulse of toxin in its sweet
little body can kill 30 men.

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But this is the most
delicious of all the fishes,

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the sweet meat almost sugared
and the salty broth mix--

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man, it's worth
almost any death.

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Can you taste the pure poison
hidden in the skin folds?

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Can you forget what
you eat may kill you

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even as you wipe your mouth
with the back of your hand?

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Consider the way the
porcupine fish dies.

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It's the only fish that
can close its eyes.

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When a cleaver comes near
its head it even winces.

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Sushi chefs complain
of the noise

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it makes on the chopping block
like some sort of crying,

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even though fishermen always try
to stitch its small mouth shut.

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And the blinking.

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Don't we expect fish eyes
to be dead black and dumb.

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You, you cannot
stop this hunger.

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When something this
good can kill you

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every pinprick of white
pain just adds more flavor.

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But when the waiter
with the curvy smile

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asks if you want seconds,
please, please, I beg of you,

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set down your spoon.

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