“Diabolo is an art form.

When I was 7 years old, I went back to Taiwan, and there were diabolos everywhere. I saw someone playing in the park, and that’s when I realized I wanted to play it too. [While there], my parents found this teacher on Facebook who taught diabolo sessions, and I learned from him for two days. That’s when I started.

Diabolo is a yo-yo but a lot larger, and you have two sticks connected by a string. You use the string to try and move the diabolo in ways that look cool. Whenever I actually land a trick, it feels really rewarding.

I played the diabolo for a year after I came back from Taiwan, but then I stopped. I started back up three years ago in my freshman year when I was in Ms. Huang’s class for Chinese 3. She [was doing] a talent show performance and I was like ‘Why not start picking it up again?’ Now, I’ve [been playing it] for four years.

Diabolo didn’t mean much to me when I started, but recently, it’s become something that I can just do for fun and enjoy. My classes and coursework are pretty stressful, so whenever I pick up the diabolo, it’s a stress reliever for me.

When I go to parks to practice, there’s this kid who [sometimes] shows up. I just give him the yo-yo, teach him the basics and let him play with it. I also try to show kids tricks that they [usually] can’t do.

[When I see people interested in diabolo], it validates me. I feel appreciated that people think [what I do] is cool.

I went to the USA Diabolo Competition this past summer in New Jersey. I’ve never been to a competition that large for diabolo, because the actual competitions are in Asia. The day before the competition, we had this whole workshop where everyone gathered in one place and started practicing. When I saw their tricks, I just started locking in the day before the actual competition, and I stayed up until midnight practicing. Everyone there was so good.

My team and I won second place in the team division for under 17 [year olds]. That was really exciting. But then when I got to my individual competition, I placed second to last. I can’t say that I’ve mastered [the diabolo] yet, because there’s still a lot of things I haven’t done, but I’m working to get better.”