I awoke to my mother\u2019s voice, \u201cGet up! Let\u2019s GO, we have to go now. Grab your suitcase!\u201d I didn\u2019t understand where we were going, but obeyed. I clutched the heavy black and white stitched suitcase and stumbled along groggily in a herd of people. I don\u2019t remember seeing my three younger brothers in the crazy commotion but I do remember our live-in nanny, a short chunky woman with short black hair. I wonder what\u00a0happened to her?<\/p>\n
I heard my mom yell, \u201cLet\u2019s GO!”.\u00a0 Driving away from our house, the bombs were exploding in the distance behind our jeep. The deafening noise hurt my ears and I saw flames in the distance. We drove by a lot of trash and homes that looked deserted.<\/p>\n
Everyone kept silent and I didn\u2019t understand what was going on. \u00a0The adults looked terrified and anxious. It was like watching a surreal movie.<\/p>\n
We moved around a lot prior to ending up in Saigon, Vietnam. We first lived in Hue and then moved to Da-Nang. My dad was in the army so that was the norm.\u00a0 I didn’t realize it at the time,\u00a0but my aunt had connections to some Air Force friends, allowing us to escape from\u00a0Vietnam, a country\u00a0we would never see again. We were literally taking one of the last few cargo planes to leave.<\/p>\n
My dad almost did not make the flight with us. He had barely escaped the communists,\u00a0then firmly in control of Vietnam. To elude capture, he was hiding\u00a0in a lake, breathing through a bamboo tube. It\u2019s interesting to even picture my dad in that scenario.\u00a0\u00a0It is something\u00a0I need to ask him more about because, our lives could have changed in an instant.<\/p>\n
I stepped into the cargo plane\u00a0where families with suitcases hustled inside.\u00a0 I had never been on an airplane in my life.\u00a0 I remembered there was lot of confusion, children crying, and anxious in\u00a0voices. There were no seats. Families huddled tightly on the aluminum floor with the few belongings they were able to take with them. \u201cYou\u2019re responsible for that suitcase,\u201d my mom snapped. In my bewilderment, I clenched it harder.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t remember much of the flight, only\u00a0getting on the plane and squeezing in between bodies. I guess I slept the entire journey to our unknown destination. In reflection, my travels\u00a0were first class in comparison to stories I\u2019d heard about other people nearly drowning in boats and other horrors of cannibalism.<\/p>\n
We ended up in a camp in Guam with hundreds of tents, sleeping on cots and sharing a big tent with other families. All of my mother\u2019s siblings and her parents were at the camp with us. My mother has three younger sisters and four younger brothers.\u00a0My aunt was only able to take her\u00a0parents, sibblings and\u00a0their families\u00a0on the plane. My father\u2019s siblings and parents were left behind.<\/p>\n
Meals were prepared by\u00a0American soldiers. We lined up for food that we\u2019d never tasted before. One day, I wandered off on my own.\u00a0 A\u00a0woman was selling hot tea at the camp. \u201cOh wow,\u201d I blurted and ran for a cup. The warm tea tasted hot and delicious as I drank it down! Later, I found out\u00a0she was using muddy plain water; no tea leaves\u00a0involved. I found this out\u00a0when my aunt told me to stop drinking the mud water. We spied on the\u00a0woman as she continued to sell her \u201ctea\u201d to\u00a0other refugees.<\/p>\n
Weeks later, we packed up and left for the United States, arrived in Arlington, Virgina in the summer of 1975<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n The suitcase I carried was jammed with Vietnamese currency, all large bills,\u00a0a lifetime of savings. But,\u00a0my parent\u2019s savings were worthless since Vietnam\u00a0had been\u00a0taken over by the communists. Other families brought more gold over, so they were more fortunate and didn\u2019t have to work as hard as my parents. Our sponsor also helped my parents find jobs. My dad got a job as a painter since you didn\u2019t need to speak English to paint and\u00a0he could\u00a0get\u00a0by with his broken English. My mother cleaned houses to earn extra money while attending E.S.L. classes at night. She eventually became an accountant and worked for the same company for 35 years, until recently retiring.<\/p>\n These events shaped my\u00a0life. I\u00a0make extra efforts to be kind to people in the service industry, especially the immigrants that have just arrived to the U.S. and barely speak a word of English. It\u2019s made me respect other people that are now in the same situation my family experienced.<\/p>\n \u10e6\u00a0I am\u00a0grateful for every happy moment, because it can be taken away in an instant.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I awoke to my mother\u2019s voice, \u201cGet up! Let\u2019s GO, we have to go now. Grab your suitcase!\u201d I didn\u2019t understand where we were going, but obeyed. I clutched the…Posted on<\/span>