She Left Me There

Modern Love

The New York Times

Love, New York Times, Nytimes, Essay, Loss, Storytelling, Society & Culture, Redemption, Nyt

4.3 • 9K Ratings

🗓️ 19 May 2021

⏱️ 25 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Kacey Vu Shap had no desire to return to the Vietnamese orphanage of his youth. As a child, whenever he told people he was adopted, he would say that he came “premade” — that he spontaneously appeared one day at the Baltimore airport, greeted by a new family bearing flowers and kisses. “It was easier to sanitize my story by speaking only of my life as Kacey, who was loved and wanted, than to tell people of my life as Vu, who was abandoned and undesired,” Kacey wrote in his Modern Love essay. Nearly 25 years later, Kacey found himself back at the orphanage with his three best friends and a newfound understanding of what form love can take.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Love now in the form of a starlight level.
0:06.0	You should never love anyone but yourself.
0:08.0	You're the love.
0:09.0	And I love you more than anything.
0:12.0	She's the love.
0:14.0	From the New York Times, I'm Dan Jones.
0:16.0	And I'm Mealy.
0:18.0	This is the Modern Love Podcast.
0:20.0	Today's essay comes from a writer named Casey Vouchap.
0:24.0	I remember when this story first came in,
0:26.0	I was immediately taken by the power of it.
0:30.0	It was clearly the most important story in his life.
0:34.0	And it wasn't about traditional romantic love,
0:38.0	but more about self-acceptance through friendship.
0:42.0	Yeah, I was struck by his bravery in sharing it,
0:45.0	and just kind of the beauty of his ability to process the trauma he experienced in childhood,
0:51.0	and come to a really positive place.
0:54.0	Yeah.
0:57.0	It's called, Why Did She Leave Me There?
1:00.0	It's written by Casey Vouchap, and it's read by Kong Sim.
1:12.0	The gate to the orphanage was smaller than I remembered.
1:16.0	Nearly 25 years had passed since I lived there.
	...

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