I have never been inside a garden like my father's garden.

It was just basically a jungle of green and I would disappear into the garden in the

summertime, after school sometimes in the early fall, and just look for worms and pick

stones.

When Melissa Lam was a little girl, her favorite place in the whole world was right in her

backyard.

She still remembers like it was yesterday.

I could hear the sound of cicadas, especially when it would get hot.

And I just remember me lying in the grass and looking up at the maple trees and the sprinkler

going off when my dad would be watering the garden and trying to dodge it and play in

it.

And I used to think myself when I was a kid it was like the earth kind of singing.

It was just a place where I could kind of experience everything with all my senses

and also feel safe.

But outside the gates of her father's garden, Melissa didn't always feel so safe.

You see Melissa grew up in the 1980s.

It was a suburb of Toronto.

Most of her neighbors were white.

Because when you look different from your blue-eyed or brown-haired or blonde-haired classmates,

kids notice a difference, right?

I can remember a particular event for example.

This was a boy from my school.

...