Growing up Filipino-American in a largely White community, I never quite felt that there was enough space for me. It felt necessary to camouflage, to shrink, or to isolate completely. Even if certain aspects of who I was were accepted, when it came to all of my Filipino-ness, suddenly there was no space for it. My mother’s Kapampangan accent fell funny on the ears of my American peers. Homemade sinigang, offered lovingly to friends, yielded nothing but scrunched noses and bowls that remained full. In 2022, the movie Everything Everywhere All at Once was released. As the queer daughter of a Filipino immigrant mother, I marveled over how many things the movie got exactly right about my Asian-American familial dynamic. Much to my surprise, many of my friends who did not share those particular aspects of my identity still cried, laughed, and felt the profundity of the film alongside me. The ability for literature to connect whole societies had occurred to me before, but seeing my white friends before my eyes being profoundly impacted by an inherently Asian-American narrative abolished my shame. It created a sense of safety and pride surrounding my Asian identity. My life purpose, teaching literature, would allow me to offer that kind of experience–that feeling of communal understanding and belonging–to any student. For a long time, I have been imagining myself, now in the not-so-distant future, as an English teacher. In the broadest sense, I want to inspire others to be curious about everything. But as my understanding of the world expands and focuses, I’m discovering that the value I place on curiosity is largely related to its role in generating empathy. When you are curious about something, you are creating space to learn. When I pursue a career in teaching, I will have ample chances to create space for all kinds of people. Students who do not have access to thriving, diverse communities may still be able to connect with and relate to so many different lives through literature. It is my sincerest hope that my future students will make space for all kinds of people, including Filipinos, by instinct.