[MUSIC]
Anna Martin: From The New York Times,
I'm Anna Martin.
This is Modern Love.
In this week's essay,
an immigrant daughter exceeds almost all expectations.
But in this one big way,
she's a disappointment
to the person she most wants to impress —
her mom.
The essay is written and read by Putsata Reang.
Putsata Reang: This past December,
my mother called me in Seattle
from her rural Oregon home.
She hadn't talked to me in months.
Her talk was sprinkled with the Khmer word 'gohn.'
It means 'darling.'
She had stopped using that word with me months before.
At the end of our call,
she summoned me home,