News Trend Year of the Rooster|Actual

The words electrified me.

Fascinated me.

Boggled my mind.

And to be honest, scared me more than a little bit.

Pacific Rim.

I was in elementary school when I first heard the term. Matter-of-factly, my teacher informed my classmates and me that someday, Asia would become a major force in the world and along with the west coast of the United States, goods and people would ebb and flow across the Pacific Ocean as this new economic center gained power.

To a little girl living in Michigan, in a mid-twentieth century world centered around Europe, this was quite a bombshell.

Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined my life today.

• After living here for decades, I feel at home on the west coast, within eyesight of Pacific waters.

• My friends and neighbors are Asian Americans; their shiny black hair, soothing mother tongues and savory cooking aromas tickle my senses every day

• I've traveled around the Pacific Rim four times, visiting true friends along the way.

• My very own third-born daughter has lived across the waters for three years, and will soon travel back to begin a fourth.

Asia no longer feels so strange or far away to me.

Certainly I haven't learned all her secrets just yet, but we're comfortable together and I feel at home in her customs.

So when the Lunar New Year rolls around, like most Americans, I check out the new Animal of the Year and read up on the horoscopes and predictions for the the new year.

But I also celebrate the way that Asia has charmed her way into my life.

Happy Lunar New Year!