Narrative Essay (Moving to USA) PDF

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ENGL1101-720 NARRATIVE ESSAY My mother used to say that: “Life always turns out the way that we did not mean to, but once you step out of your comfortable zone, you are not the same person you were.” I find her words so true to me. The past year came along with my moving from Vietnam to America which has been the biggest change in my life. However, I turned that difficulty into the opportunity to try new things that I had never done before and gradually changed myself in a better way. At the end of August in 2016, I received the news that my family’s immigrant case was accepted and we had three months ahead to prepare for interviewing and moving. Needless to say, my parents and my younger sister were so excited because after thirteen years of waiting, finally they had a chance to reunite with my aunts and grandparents in America. At that time, I was a straight-A student who had gone through a half way to get the Bachelor’s Degree in Biotechnology and became one of the most competitive candidates for the government scholarship for the Master’s Degree, so it was obvious that I did not want to go and start everything over. A lot of arguments between me and my parents happened since then. While my parents insisted me to go with them, I still kept the idea of remaining living in Vietnam and refused to claim my name on immigration documents. “Besides studying, you have never done anything before to make money, even doing chores at home and cooking. How could you take care of yourself and afford to live here on your own?”, my mother said with tears in her eyes. I know they worried about me, but I did not see this point at that time. In my head, I blamed them for being selfish when forcing me to give up my potentially bright future. They said there would be some ways to transfer my education to schools in America, but it was clear that not all my works would be given credits and I did not want to throw my great effort in such a

long time away. I went out more to avoid family-gathering time as much as possible. There were days that I left home at 6am and returned when everyone was already in bed. The interview day was coming but the tense situation in my family did not get any better. Even worse, I stubbornly took a trip to Vung Tau beach on my own at the same day the interview took place. Surprisingly, what had happened during that trip changed the whole situation. On the bus to Vung Tau, I met my old friend who had been always famous for his academic achievement since high school. Through the conversation with him, I knew that he and his family was trying to get a visa for him to study abroad in Europe. He was on the way to come home to help his parents move from a big house to the small one. He said the extra money from selling his house would be saved for his tuition fee in foreign country. His story made me rethink about my situation. I wonder whether I was so lucky when being given a chance to live abroad while a lot of people had to do everything to get this ticket. I closed my eyes and listened to the music from my MP3, but the image of my parents struggling with a ton of English paperwork related to moving continuously showed up in my head. “Without me, the oldest child and the only one in my family knew English, how could my parents adapt and live in a new country?” I asked myself and felt guilty for what I had done before. I realized that I was the one who had been being selfish for thinking only about myself, not my parents. So, when I arrived to Vung Tau, I took the earliest bus to come back to Saigon in order to be on time for the interview. I showed up while my parents and my younger sister were waiting to be called up at the US Embassy and Consulate in Saigon, making the anxiety and sadness on their face disappear quickly. In the state of relieve and confidence, four of us headed to the interview room with the hope that a new life chapter would be opened.

I took off at the end of 2016. After too many conflicts within myself as well as between my parents, I decided to leave everything in Vietnam behind and headed to the promised land, America. Until now, I have lived here for nine months and never regretted my choice. This country has given me a number of valuable opportunities to expand my limit that I set myself before as well as explore who I really am and what I want to do in the future....