Episode 9: Alborz Omidian

January 27, 2019

I remember being in first grade in Indiana, like a month after moving from Iran, and the whole class was writing these letters to our families for the holidays. I didn’t know how to write in English yet, I didn’t even know the shapes of the letters or anything, so I start freaking out and copying the kid next to me line by line. Afterwards our teacher went around reading our stories to the class, and when she got to mine she’s just like, “Who’s Loveben?” Because the kid I was copying had written “Love, Ben” at the end, and I had just copied everything. So I signed my name as LOVEBEN.

I also didn’t know about the convention of raising your hand and asking to go to the bathroom so for the first few weeks I would just raise my hand and yell out, “SHOILET!” without being called on every time I needed to pee, because I had forgotten the word for “toilet.” The teacher must have thought something was wrong with me, because she would get someone to hold my hand and escort me to the bathroom. Meanwhile I’m sitting there thinking, “Wow, Americans are so friendly.”

So much of the way I see the world has been shaped by my mom. We moved from Iran to the US when I was seven years old. One of the saddest things she ever said to me was, “Do you know how smart I sound in Farsi? And how dumb I sound in English?” She was a journalist in Iran, this incredibly sharp, cosmopolitan woman. Then we moved here, and she gave all of that up to become a housewife. She took on the job of really holding our entire family together, so that I could have the opportunities I have today. My dad was working so much to support us financially, so I ended up spending a lot of time just with my mom. We were both learning English at the same time, and we really only had each other to talk to. So from a very young age, I would have these very adult conversations with my mom about spirituality, emotion, and how to observe and understand people in a meaningful way.

My mom is the one who gave me my first journal, and I’ve written in them ever since. Partly because I’m scared of dying and fading away, so having a written record of my life gives me comfort. And partly because being in touch with my past, present, and future is important to me. I write about simple things. Like noticing that one of my friends had a really nice outfit that day, or a kind interaction between strangers, or I’ll try to describe the color of the sky as well as I can. Recognizing simple, everyday beauty keeps me grounded and grateful. I also write about my own interactions with people and try to understand why I do the things I do. Like, I said this petty thing because I was actually scared about something else, or upset about something totally different. I try to hold myself accountable and have those hard conversations with myself. It’s almost like being in touch with a 4thdimensional self. I can be in conversation with the past, present, and future “me”, and all of them are connected. I’ll even leave little Easter eggs for myself. I’ll write, “Yo, if you’re reading this now, go look up if this thing happened, or how much this thing costs, or if you’re still close with this person.” So when I’m re-reading my journal, it’s almost like I can revise the memory as if I did know something about the future at that point in time. And we’re also all at this super critical point in our lives, where all of our decisions feel like writing the big plot points of our life stories. So it means a lot to me to have a record of that process unfolding and seeing the type of person I’m becoming.

What are your 5 Most Recently Played Artists on Spotify?
ABBA, Kodak Black, The Tarzan Soundtrack, Motor City Drum Ensemble, alt-J

If you could have any superpower, which one would you choose?
Like metamorphosis or shapeshifting, being able to look like other people. Seems like the best way to have the most impact while staying under the radar.

Pick something or someone from NYMC go give out a shout of to!
My boy Alan from the cafeteria, who always hooks it up with the healthy serving sizes.

If someone wanted to talk to you, they should lead with:
Sustained eye contact.