Lisa Gate

My name game with the name Lisa is dedicated to Lisa Brackelmann and Lisa Noma. 

Lisa Brackelmann, the daughter of my kindergarten director Erika Brackelmann, was one of my first friends at the Kindergarten an der Linde in Düsseldorf Hubbelrath. Back then, the Brackelmanns took me to vaulting at the Lindchen Riding Club. Lisa's older sister, Anne Brackelmann, was already vaulting there in Susanne Wieschnewski's competition group.

We started vaulting together as a team and quickly rose to the club's highest competition group. I still vividly remember the many hours we spent mucking out our horses with Lisa. Thanks to her talent for storytelling, it was never boring. Together, we illustrated a comic about a girl in our Knittkuhler gymnastics club whom we didn't like. It was pretty mean, and it made the girl cry.

I also listened to my first Bibi Blocksberg cassettes with Lisa, and our favorite episode was "Bibi and the Black Four." 

The other dedication is for Lisa Noma, a Japanese woman and the best friend of my American host sister, Jennifer Miller, from Cupertino, California. Lisa Noma lived on our street, and we carpooled to school together in the mornings. 

My host sister, Jennifer Miller, is a pretty toxic only child, which is why the two of them were constantly getting into trouble. After I finished my stay with the Millers, Lisa was sent to a camp for troubled teens called Provo Canyon School. While Lisa remained sober, Jennifer dropped out of high school and studied at the nearest college, where she replaced Lisa with Loretta. Loretta, who is from South Korea, was one of my friends. Because Jennifer is only Japanese, friendships between Japanese and South Koreans are rare. After graduating, Loretta worked at Google, and an incident occurred between the three of them that is rarely discussed. Probably an accident or something, it landed Loretta in the hospital, and ultimately led to her being fired from Google.

Jennifer's scheming and lack of transparency caused Loretta to betray her in the worst possible way. After several years, Lisa Noma took her own life by jumping out of a window in San Francisco. Jennifer told me that Lisa had gone too far down the rabbit hole, believed in aliens and Asian genocide, and belonged to a New Age cult.

I probably have similar emotionally unstable parts, which is why Google destroyed me too. I've since been so hacked by Silicon Valley that I'm now retired. That's why I founded this website to strengthen the Asian American narrative, which is difficult to tell due to opacity and shame. Additionally, I want Jennifer to recognize her responsibility and resolve the conflicts with me and Loretta.

What's your name game with the name Lisa and someone who committed suicide?