Oops I did it again

plus pulling off the biggest surprise

Maiya Peterson

Jan 06, 2025

Much to the dismay of many coworkers and students, I cut my hair short.1

“What happened?” said one of my 9th graders when he saw me with my new haircut.

“You cut your hair short? Well, it still looks okay,” one coworker said.

“You look like a boy,” one of my 7th grade special ed boys told me.

“Yes, I do a bit,” I replied.

“It looks really bad,” he continued. “In fact, I can’t bear to look at you. I can’t get used to it,” he added, sitting down and turning 180 degrees away from me as we were getting ready to begin class. I replied by telling him that he still needed to recite the days of the week in English to me, which ultimately led him to look at me because he hadn’t fully memorized these words and relied on watching me mouth the first sounds for him. So, joke’s on him— you can’t bite the hand that feeds you. The next day he drew me a Christmas card and was back to normal.

Essentially, the dramatic change in looks came with a dramatic response. It wasn’t all negative, but by old (bad) habit, the negative comments rang a bit louder in my head the first few days as I was getting used to the new look myself. Now that it’s been a few weeks, the shock has settled down and my school community seems more used to it, as am I. And I’m loving it! I cut my hair because I was spending stupid amounts of time brushing it, only for it to get wind-blown and disastrously knotty shortly after finishing that task. Not to mention that my thick hair was taking nearly half an hour to blow-dry, which was also not in my list of fun/worthwhile tasks. So, I donated it.

making a typical Penghu winter solstice snack of a bread-y turtle with a four-word good fortune phrase written on its back

But first, in order to secure my spot as weirdest Peterson kid2, I planned a prank with my two long locks of braided hair, wherein I put them in my grandmother’s stocking as the final item she would pull out, wrapped in a Taiwan 7-11 grocery bag as if it were a special treat.

Which leads me to my other big news: I went home for Christmas for the first time in three years. Reasons include: to see my grandmother who’s currently preparing for a major surgery, to see my big brother whom I hadn’t seen in 3 years, and to be with all my siblings and parents together at the same time, for the first time in over 5 years.

Because my family had gotten used to me not being there, I took advantage of the fact that I could surprise them all with my presence (apart from my parents, who of course had to be in on the surprise). One by one, I surprised my siblings, cousin, uncle, and grandmother, in all sorts of strange and fun ways. For my cousin and uncle, I hid in the trunk of the car after my mom drove me back from the airport, wherein she told my cousin that there was a “package” for her in the trunk. For Soren, I went behind the transparent part of our fireplace so he could only just make out my face glowing ominously as my parents asked him if there seemed to be anything off about the fireplace tiles. For Silja, I covered myself completely with a blanket while my mom led her blindfolded to me and had her guess what was there. For Carsten and Eva, I individually picked each of them up from the airport (they were both expecting my mom to be the one picking them up). For Grandma Sandy, I sat under the Christmas tree in low lighting, wherein she *fully* didn’t see me for nearly a minute, while seemingly staring right at me. And for my aunt, I video called her, pretending I was still in Taiwan, then had a fun reveal that I was in Colorado with Andrea.

Too fun. It feels like the kind of surprise you can only really pull off once.

helping prepare my mom’s famous Brussels sprouts (a top-ranking item on my Christmas bucket list)

making almond crescents with Grandma Sandy (another Christmas bucket list item for me)

Rocky Mountain National Park (Emerald Lake)

Other activities include seeingWicked, getting a pedicure with all of the siblings, decorating the Christmas tree, catching up with friends, playing with Huxley (dog) and Bonzo (cat), working on puzzles, and lots of eating. Video calls are of course a great way to stay in touch and chat, but so many of these tangible activities that we did together have a quality about them that just can’t be replicated via technology/from afar.

December also included a few birthday celebrations, some windy runs and treadmill runs, a Penghu cohort Secret Santa gift exchange, making eggnog and cookies at Hujing, teaching “Do You Hear What I Hear” at Hujing, a few university English conversation sessions, a choir/community event to make dumplings, book club, Chinese class, and an outing to the Xiyu Library, including a side quest for stinky tofu, Family Mart ice cream, and a (very windy) coastal walk.