As a public historian and someone who bridges cultures, my journey is deeply shaped by my heritage—a Vietnamese mother born in Saigon, like myself, and an Irish/German father whose family immigrated to the United States at the turn of the 20th century. Growing up, navigating this liminal space between cultures often felt precarious. As the child of a deeply unpopular war, I bore the weight of a history that often alienated me from my peers.