That time my dad called me a drag queen. At work.

Photo: Jontxu Fernandez/Flickr

If my brain had a function like Facebook that could show you the memory I had on this day a year ago. Well then I wouldn’t have to write about it, would I?

So today one year ago is … Dad calling me a drag queen at our family business day.

Now I didn’t have a problem with my dad calling me a drag queen in front of 40 workers as the prospective owner and future leader of our family business. Wait, that’s a lie. Obviously, I had a problem with it because I quit my job the next month and moved back to Thailand to live in social isolation between children that call me fat. Fat like a rhino to be exact.

They might just mean that my nose is big in comparison to theirs.

Anyway, it didn’t bother me as such. I mean I enjoy watching Ru Paul’s sometimes but I wouldn’t categorize myself as a drag queen. I don’t think anyone would. Unless they see me dancing. Which looks like someone that has watched too much ‘So you think you can dance’.

With the emphasis on ‘So you think’.

Regardless of that, I don’t even know where my dad got this. It might be that time that I dressed up for ‘Rocky Horror Picture Show’. But everyone else was also doing it so I just felt I had to do it to fit in. Peer pressure. Social conformity. You know. Costumes and stuff.

I think in some weird way he classifies all gay people under the same category. He likes categorizing things into lists. So in my mind that makes the most sense. That has the most reason or sense behind it.

Now I have tried to talk with my dad, you know, in more detail. But. He doesn’t get it. Which is fine. I guess. Like it totally doesn’t bother me. A cough and clears throat.

I think I had a good reply though when my dad called me a drag queen.

I said, “Did you mean drama queen because I am sure you wouldn’t want a drag queen running your precious business.”

It turns out he actually meant drama queen because I was prone to ordering company meetings and talking about stuff and practicing my public speaking ability. Which was all unintentional and subconscious. And so much fun because none of us had to work during that time.

And now a full year later I have come full circle. I am the speech and writing teacher at a school in Thailand.

But everyone just calls me the drama queen. Again.