I came to the United States with my dad when I was twelve and unlike other immigrants, I did not want to come here. I thought that I had a great life there – I enjoyed my time with friends and the community surrounded me. December 13, 2011 changed my life.
As a kid, I did not know or cared much about the world around me, other than the fact that I like to hang out with friends and have a lot of fish tanks. My mom used to yell at me every time I brought new fish home – she said that I was wasting my money. My most popular was the collection of guppy fish that I bought at least once every few weeks. You can tell whether or not the fish is a male or female by looking at the color and length of their fins; male fish tends to have longer fins and are more colorful than females.
I used to wonder why she let me to come here with my dad and his family while she stays there. I learned from mom and her sacrifices for me to come here. She said to me that I need to leave Vietnam to come to the United States with dad as it was the only way for me to get away from the hard corruption of Vietnam.
I never realized this until I came here because I thought that it was okay for people to take bribes “in public”, and it was okay to live “a life without tomorrow”. Almost every ordinary citizens in Vietnam must live on debts. My aunts and uncles had to go to the grocery store and buy their foods with the promise to pay back at a later day. No body know when that day will come. Even worse than that is when people who use money from loan sharks to gamble at a high interests, a typical of 10% a day for a period of one week to pay back. They are often in times run by members of triads. Most of these people never have money to pay back on time. As a result, they are either continue to borrow more money to pay back the debts, or risk of losing a finger/hand to the triad.
Growing up in a country like Vietnam brought me a different perspective when I came to America. I agree with some people that the United States is far from being a perfect country. However, I can say that I’d rather live here than anywhere else in this world. We have a political system that allowed every citizen to participate and shared their ideology. We do not throw people in prison for simply holding a different view/belief. We are able to create and run businesses as we wished. According to Business Insider’s 2012 report: “U.S. citizens and nationals could travel to 166 countries visa-free or with visa on arrival.” It is not the same for citizens of foreign countries to come to the United States. Also, America has given me many opportunities that people have often taking for granted. Since arriving here, I’ve got to serve on leadership roles and be part of different organizations, something that I did not get when living in the communist of Vietnam. It is good to be part of a good cause…
About me: A freshman at Ohio State – Working towards a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and is currently serving as Chairman for the City of Columbus Toastmasters and Vice President of Student Government at The Ohio State University at Newark & Central Ohio Technical College. On my social hours, I like to get coffee with people to get to know them and learn about where they came from.