Asian American History Month: A Personal Story
For over twenty years living in the United States, I never had to stop and think about how much I had become "Americanized" until a colleague recently told me when she asked me to write an article about Asian History. I always thought that I am still very traditional and still carry a lot of my culture and beliefs, but when it was time to share some of my thoughts, I went blank. I was shocked because I have no ideas of what to share with the "non-Asians." Nevertheless, just like most Asians that migrated to this country, I also experienced the first several hard steps of the journey on American soil; thus, the uniqueness of our stories of where I came from, and all the challenges that I overcame have contributed such valuable lesson about Asian American that were written in various American history books.
It all started when I took that first step out of the airplane twenty years ago. Yes, twenty years sounds like a long time, but it seems just like yesterday. After six years of separation from my father, who had escaped the communist country to go find freedom, and a better life for his children, and future grandchildren, I can still remember vividly how cold it felt in December 1993, when we arrived in Jacksonville, Florida. The tears of joy and excitement conquered the anxiety and nervousness that I had preconceived about seeing my father again. Because after six years of not seeing him and only communicating with him through hand written letters that we exchanged once a month, I didn't know what to say to my father when we finally met. I was a little afraid of him at first, but I soon realized that he loved me, and the reason I didn't see him for those six years was because he had to risk his life to escape to find us freedom. His journey to this country almost killed him at sea when he was on a tiny wooden boat that was built to fit eight people but was cramped with twenty-one adults and children. I love him even more after learning more about his hardships and all the risks that he took for us. My father's only dream was for all of his children to finish school and get a college degree because being educated in the U.S brings us more opportunities for successful careers and eventually a better future.
However, for a twelve year old girl, who was not able to read or speak any English, it was very difficult to have a dream of becoming a doctor, lawyer, or business woman. I remember one day coming home crying to my father asking him to let me stay home because I got picked on at school for not understanding English and was laughed at because my lunch was always rice. But instead of yelling at me, my father said it in a very loving voice: "Honey, just imagine this, one day you will learn how to speak English and speak it so well that you will be smarter than those kids because you will know two languages and you can tell them how mean they were but most importantly, you will be smarter than them. I promise!" Hence, only six months later, I was able to speak to those kids at school in English and Vietnamese, and I was able to tell them that I was smarter because I was a bilingual, but they were not, and they couldn't copy my Math homework anymore.
As months and years passed, I graduated third in my class in high school and received numerous scholarships for college. While in college, I remained on the Dean�s list for four years, and graduated with a Bachelor in Business Finance. Along with my accomplishments, my two older siblings also achieved something for themselves such as my brother graduated with a Chemical Engineering degree, and my sister graduated with an Education degree and is about to finish with her Master degree.
Speaking of hard work changing lives, I can proudly say that I am a successful business woman, who can negotiate the best deal for anything. I know my parents are proud about our achievements, and they also feel accomplished when seeing their three children become successful. Unfortunately, before my father could spend his retiring years sharing with us the joy of our accomplishments, he passed away after a year of battling cancer. Now more than ever, I wish that my father was still around to spend time with my two beautiful children and to help teach them Vietnamese, so that they will not forget about our native language and our tradition.
My father's dream wasn't the only dream of an Asian father, but rather, it is the dream of all Asian immigrant fathers and families, whose dreams are to be able to support their family and to give their children and grandchildren a better life and a better future. Accordingly, there are many families that dreams are successfully accomplished after a long journey of hard work and dedication.
One of the main goals of all Asian immigrants is to become an American citizen. My two siblings and I became Naturalized American Citizens over ten years ago, and recently, my mother also passed her citizenship test at the age of sixty-nine. She always wanted to become a U.S. citizen because she grew tired of the limitations that a "legal resident" placed on her. At last, my mother is a retired U.S. citizen. This is just to show how much freedom means to us as immigrants because if one is willing to look beyond our black hair, brown eyes, and tan skin, they will find that we are not any different from any other ethnic group in this country. We all want the same thing for ourselves and our families, and that is to have a better life and a better future for our children. Therefore, we all choose to work exceptionally hard to ensure that we can become someone; if not, our children can be someone in life.
In the end, I just want to leave you with the following message that although we chose to dedicate the month of May to celebrate our Asian Heritage, it ought to be celebrated daily and at any given moment because we ought to be proud of who we are, and where we came from, and how much we have accomplished since we arrived in the U.S. Because as much as we think we are individually different and diverse, together I think we are very similar because we each have contributed something special and valuable to our new mother land, which makes it a country of hope and dreams for everyone.
