Susie Reynolds Reece

Susie Reynolds Reece, comedically known as Southern-Fried Asian (Korean-Arkansan style), is a published author, national speaker, and suicide prevention strategist and consultant.

[southernfriedasian]

Just For Me After my father’s horrible and abrupt death, writing became something necessary. I remember a friend of his, who would later become my first real mentor, telling my grandparents that I needed to see a therapist. As I overheard the conversation, I can’t recall now whether I understood what that really meant....

[southernfriedasian]

Speaking of Riffing In public speaking, something always goes wrong. It’s best to set your mind to this as a fact, a static expectation, a simple truth. The more you travel and speak, the more that will not only be guaranteed to go wrong, but will also be so far out of your control. Being an excellent speaker means being a control freak with nothing to control. You carry every extra cord, hoping you don’t have to whip out your really cool “tech bag”, but also hoping just a bit you do, so you can be the MacGyver of the Mic. Debonair, tech extraordinaire. ...

[southernfriedasian]

Not Applicable

I sit on a few boards and committees, which help me to both stay informed across fields and spaces, but also act as an advisor so they can hear my perspective and hopefully incorporate the knowledge about potential solutions I know into their efforts. Some of the groups I’m a part of meet far less than others. It depends on the nature of the group and work, and what our scope is focused on. I’ve…

[southernfriedasian]

Mental Health is Unwell

The onset of AI has had me rethinking every aspect of my work. As someone who pretends to be artistic, from time to time, my poetry or written pieces, have been most on my mind of late. For those of you who have followed me for many years, you all know I love to write, but the truth is that writing heals me. My writing allows me to release all the pain I can absorb from this terribly hard work.…

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[southernfriedasian]

Handle with Care

The field has spent years focusing on how stories are used, not nearly enough time on what happens to the people doing the sharing.  Pressure to share isn’t accidental. It’s a structural feature of how organizations use lived experience. We, those who have been impacted, our mined for our stories. Our stories are extracted, often diluted, and edited to meet an organization’s goal or tone, and…

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[southernfriedasian]

Foundations of Experience

What if lived and living experience (LLE) wasn’t a story we heard about but something we built alongside? This video project was created to help organizations, leaders, and partners understand what happens when we move from inclusion to true co-creation. The “Foundations of Experience” explores what it means to embed LLE across efforts and in systems. LLE should be a structural component and an…

Foundations of Experience

[southernfriedasian]

For years, I wished I could see the people who were leading the type of work I was also doing. I wanted to learn and grow from those who proudly walked the path of being a lived experience professional before me, but unfortunately, this wasn’t something that had been outlined in one space.

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[southernfriedasian]

I’m inconsistent. 

I struggle with modern expectations more often than I feel I should, even though I’m not supposed to feel any way about them. Still, I do. I don’t understand how we are expected to accomplish so much with so little time in the day.  Wake, work, eat, work out, write, other work, check on people, listen to pain, remember to take care of yourself, hygiene, eat, spend time with those you love, pet…

I’m inconsistent. 

[southernfriedasian]

Sorrowfully Seductive 

I slipped into my sadness, one timid toe at a time. Sinking softly into the warm waters of woe. My skin dipped into the depression, and dazzled as though diamonds had set upon it. As I sank, lower and lower, I lost myself to the relentless retreat of me. Knowing not what I had or who I was just moments before.  My tastes, my desires, the dry sense of myself, now whet against this worry. Now but…

[southernfriedasian]

Your Guide to an Online Debate

Let me tell you what to do so your voice can erode all others. Let me walk you through the steps it would take to get exactly what you want. 

Hello, Stranger.  I know you care deeply and want everyone to know. You have a voice that must be heard. But if others speak, you fear your voice will be hushed, shushed, or even silenced. The mere thought most likely causes pain deep within your gut.  Let me tell you what to do so your voice can erode all others. Let me walk you through the steps it would take to get exactly what you…

[southernfriedasian]

Searching for Strength

I looked for strength today and I couldn’t find it in all the places where the warriors told me they would wield it for me. I searched their histories, their chronicles, their passion and in the end I came up empty.  I could say I didn’t look hard enough, or long enough, or smart enough for the words I know they’ve borne before, but in that instant of emptiness- no answer would have mattered or…

[southernfriedasian]

Historically Irrelevant 

I was standing in the history section of a popular bookstore, perusing the president aisle. These days, just saying the “p” word causes an unquietable uproar. P for president and also for peruse. (See Webster or Mirriams, or Google, or Your mom). As I stand in front of this wall of leaders, glancing over title after title of books, I find myself wondering. How many of us have touched pages…

[southernfriedasian]

The Problem with Research

The Problem with Research

I was asked what happened to me so I could be studied and understood. The only problem was that the words they wrote didn’t sound like mine. I said a thing that held deep meaning, which was removed because of the concern for validity. I shared the pain, the confusion, and the challenges, all of which were spread across hundreds of others, unlike myself. I found the data and gleaned myself unique…

[southernfriedasian]

Our Stories

Our stories are made of perfect sentences. The ones that come to us as though from the beyond and penetrate straight to the heart of the matter. They speak life into withered hearts and rekindle meanings we never knew we had lost. Our stories are made from ink splattered against the stone. It sloshes and spills as we scurry about. It stains our fingers and leaves traces of all the things we are…

Our Stories

[southernfriedasian]

Thank you for Hating Me

Because you never showed me love, I was forced to look for it in other places. But as I was but a child, I was shown so few real choices.  At first, I found myself alone and sad. Watching wistfully your way. Wanting nothing more than to be accepted, no matter what you’d say.  Then the time came when my heart caved in, and I traversed it deep inside. I found a peace of being, so far away from…

[southernfriedasian]

Foolish for You

It was raining heavily where I live today and my kids normally walk about four minutes to and from the bus stop on our road. I jumped in the car and picked them up just a couple of minutes before their buses arrived. My older kid asked me why I came to grab them today and I said, “because it was raining.” We sit there for just a few minutes and my youngest jumped in and asked the same question.…

Foolish for You

[southernfriedasian]

Impotent Tears

I’m sitting behind a wall of tears waiting for the curtains to drop. My body aches to feel the release of emotion that would pour from the salty waters of my soul. I’m sitting here half breathing, wishing I could put this pent-up emotion to use.  I can’t cry, I can’t breathe, I can’t stifle the unfounded fear.  All I need know is how do I turn these feelings into power and wisdom that sheds…