You enter a room of success, Ms. Lee’s classroom. You gain the calm vibes of music playing and the smell of essential oils filling the room. Ms. Lee is always there to greet you with a smile.
Lee is loved by all of her students. Lee is hard working, kind, thoughtful, caring person, but Lee will not be teaching at East High School anymore because she is moving.
“I am moving to Denver. I was born and raised in Chicago so moving to Des Moines was quite a culture shock for me. I have a special place in my heart for Des Moines but I know in the long run I will thrive in a bigger city. I got a job in Denver Public Schools so I will be continuing teaching. I am so excited to live somewhere new to me and they have mountains,” Lee said.
Lee lives with her fiancé Jose and their two cats Kimchi and Butters, who they call Boi. Lees home has a lot of anime stuff because Jose is an anime connoisseur which is also a little ironic, after all, Lee ais not super into anime. Yet, Lee has a lot of “Studio Ghibli” stuff, too, which Lee loves. Some of Lee’s hobbies include yoga, working out, experimenting with coffee and tea drinks, playing video games. Lee’s a huge JRPG (Japanese role-playing game) nerd Lee also love’s “Final Fantasy” and “Persona”, photography, traveling, and hiking. Some of Lee’s favorite memories would be traveling with Jose or her friends. She makes the time to travel and loves exploring new cities that she has never been to. One of Lee’s and Jose’s biggest goals is to travel to South Korea, which is where Lee is from.
“At school, I’m always thinking about tomorrow, what I need to get done, a conversation a had with a student that’s still on my mind, etc. It’s kind of melded into my identity which is not ideal but I think I’m really working on making sure my career is not the reason I’m alive if that makes sense,” Lee said.
“I feel like my proudest and biggest accomplishments are when I run into or hear from my students after they have graduated from East and when I hear what they are up to now. For example, one of my students is graduating from Iowa State this year with a degree in graphic design and it’s so amazing that I played a role in her journey. I also just ran into one of my students that I had my first year teaching at a metal concert and he was telling me how thankful he was that I encouraged him to graduate and now he’s apprenticing to be a tattoo artist. It’s these little moments that make me feel so happy,” Lee said.
Aside from what you heard, Lee, was born on March 30, 1992.
“THAT’S RIGHT, I am NOT in my 40s. Muahaha,” Lee said.
Lee’s last thing to say to East.
“I LOVE YOU, EAST HIGH SCHOOL! Thank you so much for these past eight years,” Lee said.