She was one of the girliest girls I knew since grade school, with her stylish culottes and pink garments of all different shades for all different occasions. She was the epitome of a mixture between pure innocence and quirk that boldly took her rightful place in the middle of my heart. Mary Anne wasn’t just all of that; she was also my affectionate girlfriend, my warm-hearted best friend who I could talk about anything with, from the most trivial things to the very meaning of our whole existence. At the time, all I could feel was the absolute joy that I got from spending my time with her. We had our entire happiness in the future planned out, a dream wedding and all, but maybe that was the reason why I wouldn’t have ever imagined that I would be feeling so lost and empty just a few years later, alone and missing a part of myself.…
It was a rainy morning in Seattle, and I wore my Army dress uniform. Stepping off the bus, I ran 100 yards to the entrance of the Airport. After I purchased my ticket and checked my bags, I headed to the bar. It was the time of the winter equinox, and I was headed home with my discharge in my duffle bag. I suppose I should have worn my civilian clothes, but I had been stateside six months, and the comradeship I experienced in Vietnam had yet to loosen its grip on me.…
My parents moved from Laos to the United States because they were involved in the Vietnam war. When they arrived in the U.S. Money was very tight for them. So they decided to live in this apartment in San Antonio downtown. When they had my older brother they kind of moved around a lot.…
When I woke up, I still had that guilty feeling in my stomach. Oh well, how could I fix what I did anyways? While I was thinking about my problem, Cush came by and told me it was time to get my mules ready, so we could deliver supplies to the Yankees. Later on, we got ordered to form into a wagon train and we soon started our journey. After traveling for some time, we arrived at a warehouse, where we had to pick up our supplies.…
Growing up in San Jose, California, for example, I was always surrounded by Vietnamese and—to a lesser extent—Filipino students at school. Because my schools were dominated by a Vietnamese population, I tended to drift towards that direction and befriend Vietnamese people. Being Asian was enough to be able to have shared experiences and beliefs with them, yet other parts of their culture I had to learn from them. Slowly, I began to assimilate with the culture of Vietnamese-Americans which has been reinforced through my ideals and experiences shared with friends. Reflecting on my life now, I see that even today a majority of my friends are Vietnamese.…
I left in the middle of the night. I had to go. There was so much that I need to to see in this beautiful country. I met someone named Cara, she a Native Vietnamese girl. I met her when I went out with the guys.…
Based on this essay, Vietnamese identity is guided by family and cherished traditions, whereas in America, identity is identified by status and the color of your…
The first interview I watched was with a Hungarian-Jewish man named Tibor "Ted" Rubin. He fought in the Korean War, and has very vivid memories of when he served. One memory he had was how his general always made him be on the front lines. He said that whenever they needed someone on the front lines, his general would call for the "Hungarian-Jew." But since he was on the front lines so much, he felt more and more like a hero.…
I got off my horse and as I walked off to a corner, I could smell the fear in my men grow by the second. The time before the battle trembled down, but I knew that with this amount of fear we would never win. I got on top of a pillar and looked around, in the past two days my army decreased nearly by half. Every man was scared, I could see the look in their eyes as I stared at them and they stared back with great distress. I start to call the force lineup “Attionnnn…” And realized that the field that was once full of happy animals had now become a deserted land of cold a lifeless place where in just moments rivers of blood would flow and brothers would kill brothers. .…
With and without hope, full and empty of the sea from space. For eons, we lived far deep in the depths of the ocean hidden away from the outside world. It is a sacred place to live at the time where believing something impossible can never be forgotten from all stories that were told about my home. My home that has sunk to the bottom of the ocean and now my people struggle to survive for many eons that go by quickly. It is a good thing to know at least for now some of us has survived the longest up until we were able to rebuild some parts of our city in ruins.…
It was a rainy Saturday night. I left my dorm, my stomach empty because I’d been trying to wait out the rain before going to find something to eat. But the rain didn’t end, and although it was quite late, I decided to make a quick trip to the store nearby rather than wait any longer. My umbrella was broken, so I put on my hoodie and tried to run as fast as possible. About halfway to the store, I saw an old woman with a folding walker, trying to get past the intersection while holding her umbrella.…
The calm waters erupted and chaos broke out after the announcement on the radio. I couldn’t hear anything around me, all I could hear was the sirens ringing in my ears. “PEARL HARBOR WAS ATTACKED! WE NEED TO GET BACK!” , the figure beside me shouted and shook me out of my paralyzed state.…
Growing up in a Vietnamese family in America, the value of life is highlighted by working hard and knowing your roots. Stories about family hardship and history told from the older generation in my family are mostly ones of war. I have heard many different elements of war: war crimes, anticommunist sentiments, and the escape from Vietnam. Hearing these stories has always resonated with me, motivating me to work hard for the sacrifice of those before me. In that sense, I worked rigorously to provide myself an education from the College of Natural Sciences at the University of Texas and was excited about pursuing a professional health career.…
At the age of twelve, I left the woman I love the most in Vietnam to start a new life with my dad in the United States. I was always wondering why my mom did not want to go with us, and our family could live together. But then as I have growing up, I realized that she sacrificed to stay there, so my dad can take care of me better. Remember the first day I went to an American middle school, I was clueless, difficulty in communication and the people around me have different cultures, and ethnicity. When in Vietnam, I felt so confident and proud of myself, but in United States, I started isolating people, I felt inferior and started developing a shell to cover myself from the world.…
¬¬Cultural and ethnic identities are not things that you are born with. Sure your ethnic heritage may determine things like the color of your skin, but an ethnic identity stretches far deeper than just skin color. Cultural and ethnic identities are things that are learned over time. They are formed through a collection of teachings, experiences, and choices. This autobiography will explore how my ethnic and cultural identities developed throughout my life.…