My Experience In My Life

As I grow older and live new experiences, I realize how my childhood and God led me to the circumstance I am now, which is my last semester of nursing school. I come to appreciate my mother’s hard work to get me through school as well as through life. Growing up in a low-income family in Los Angeles, California with a dad who was a full-time alcoholic and drug addict, was not a good circumstance to grow up. My mother did not speak English or had a job and believed that a married woman is to fully depend on her husband. There were times when my 2 siblings and I had nothing to eat since my dad barely came home with money after spending it all on alcohol and drugs. Due to this living situation and the fact that I was the oldest child, I felt the strong responsibility to drop out of school once I was old enough to work. Education was not an option in my future. Since we didn’t have much money, my mom signed my siblings and me to free afterschool programs at my local Catholic church, so we could learn more about our religion and the importance of God in our lives. I remember my excitement to wake up early Sunday mornings to get ready for mass, even though it took 2 bus routes to get to church. I learned from nuns and priests the importance of caring for others as if they were my own family because everyone deserves the same type of care. Caring was something I learned through religion, and not something I was born knowing. As a way to start fresh, my dad decided to move us to

The story began about a year and some months ago. Early in the Fall 2016 semester, I met a girl named Ann through a friend of mine. My first impression of Ann was that she was very pretty, but she talked a lot. I mean a lot! After I met her, the three of us began to hangout a couple of times each week. Even though she talked a lot it was fun having her around because of the energy she brought to any situation. At first, I felt that being around her drained my energy, but I eventually got accustomed to it, and grew to feed off it.

I first became aware of myself as a unique human being about a month ago because of things occuring in my life. I had a lot of new things going on in my mind last year for the first time. I didn’t know why it was this was happening to me, I thought there was something wrong with me. This is how I became aware of me being different from everyone else. *Personal*

On August 2, 1999, I was born on a Monday afternoon, at 2:30 p.m, in Hospital Conde De S. Januario. My family resided with my grandmother at Rua Formosa, Apartment 7 on the first floor. She lived behind the Cathedral of Macau, which is a famous landmark and tourist attraction. While my brother, Salman, and I were growing up, we attended the same pre-schools. One of the schools was called Seng Kung Wui. In the morning, all the grades would line up and wait for the teacher to come escort them upstairs to the classroom. I could barely last an hour without being with my brother, and I would cry if he didn't stand in my grade’s line. As a result, Sal started waiting in my line with me, until my teacher came to get my class. After I went upstairs, he would run back to his line to be with his friends. Almost everyday we wore matching outfits, and he would hold my hand while we walked inside because I did not want to be alone. After school, our Avo (grandma in Cantonese), would take us to play in the Sao Francisco Park, get ice cream, or walk through the markets to get our daily groceries. I can still remember walking through the streets and taking in all of the sights, smells, and sounds. I loved the strong aroma of spicy fish ball soup or the overwhelming scent of cigarette smoke that filled the air. The markets were filled with countless friendly faces and a wide variety of merchandise waiting to be sold.The voices of locals bartering over prices and motorcycles racing down the

Since I could walk as a toddler, I quickly learned the thrill of going new places. By the age of five, I learned how to ride my bike and the distances I could go exponentially increased. My older sister Rachel pushed my little pink bike, then, let go as I pedaled as hard as I could so I would not fall over. In middle school, I discovered the Bay Area train system, and utlized it to see my sister Rebecca. When she attended UC Berkeley, I took Caltrain to the Millbrae station, hopped on BART, then rode it across the bay. She ended up settling in the City for work. To visit, I only had to take Caltrain up to its last stop, then walk the two miles to her apartment. I would say she is the closest to me out of my whole family. Growing up as one of nine children, I was automatically born to be independant. I have five sisters, and three brothers. This had its ups and downs, but looking back, the circumstances truly shaped the person I am today.

Early morning glaze slips through the drapes, reflecting off the crystal collection that's rooted on my windowsill. The specular reflection of light urges me to open my eyes, drawn to the washed out rainbows projecting onto the pristine white walls. I sit up. With feet lightly resting on the carpeted floor I begin to feel energy rolling through my veins, waking up my toes, my calves, into my stomach, up through my chest, reaching the span of my arms and deep into my mind. Taking in the first breath of day through a long winded stretch, I begin making my way towards the other side of the room. I stare blankly into what seems like the ocean, deep and belonging to more than one place. The mirror is telling me that my eyes are like bark, dark, earthy and brown. My hair curls like the spiraling spine of the native koru and my winter woolies melt into the lovable curves that are my body. Aging gracefully, some would say, but that isn’t what I would say. I would say I am a misplaced key, one that is desperately desirable yet so easily discarded.

Throughout my life, I’ve had the opportunity to call several places my home. Coming from a military family, moving is not an uncommon occurrence, though I have been fortunate enough to only have lived in three states, Virginia, Arizona, and Texas. Each different place has had a unique effect on who I have become today and my goals.

EVErY FAmILY hAS ThEIr STorY, ALL with aspects that brings them together or drive them apart. I come from a Mexican family, where family is the only thing we know. We share each other’s pain and misery and we rejoice for our miracles. We learn and grow through each other.

My life, or perhaps in the manner that I perceive it, has been overwhelmingly filled with enlightening and repressive circumstances that could have been averted, but all in all, makes up one's destiny. These events intricately tailored me into a young man that grew conscientious of the detrimental behavior of “acting before thinking” and into the realm of “thinking before acting". What I would soon come to understand was that through sheer patience, and trial-and-error it instilled within me new insights to learn from and that the most triumphant moments in my life began at the crossroads of unknowingness, a decision to stay in mediocrity, or the pursuit towards personal greatness- thus the decision had to be met.

Throughout a person’s life, there can be many things, such as friends and family, education, or sports, that help them develop skills to turn them into the person they are today. Without these different skills, it can possibly lead to a lower standard of living, which is not what we strive for. The thing that helped me develop my unique skill set that I can use through the rest of my life, which is also my cultural artifact, is a football. Football has taught many different things that I am able to use during the rest of my college experience, and after that during my professional career. The different skills football has taught me is the value of friendship, self-motivation, and time management skills.

My life is full of adventures here in El Paso, where I was born and raised. A city like this is unique and different from many other cities because our city is right next to the border to Juarez Mexico, meaning the culture here can differ greatly. The city is unique and special, mainly because of the very Hispanic culture here that has taught me to love my family. The environment here that I have been raised in is based on a great deal of religion, family, and challenging work. I believe the environment I was raised in has matured me to be a hard-working brother and a student.

When I look at how different our lives were five months ago so many things run through my mind, “What could we have done differently?” “What could I have done differently?” The week of finals before the end of my junior year I wondered if bad things really do happen to good people, or if good people do bad things that put them into bad places.

Imagine your story becoming the forerunner of someone else’s. Someone you have never met, yet because of one story, he or she found the strength and courage to become a person far greater than ever imagined. A story of unimaginable adventures, lessons, and hardships, this is the story I, Thu Dang, will create for myself and others.

Blood poured out onto the shower floor, mixing with the water to spiral down the drain. I stared at the large amounts of blood, shocked to realize it was streaming out of ME. It was not long before I screamed for my parents. The definition of “death-defying” experience varies depending on the person and the situation. To this day, I have yet to live through an actual one, however, for a few minutes when I was seven years old, I thought death could be right around the corner. This experience changed my personal worldview. I saw the world more carefully from then on out, specifically the soap dish in showers. I also felt mentally and physically tougher, having survived what I perceived to be a “near death” experience. In the same token, however, I became prideful and jealous. No matter the actual severity of the event, a perceived “near death” experience will make an imprint on your mind and will change you as a person.

My life is a sailboat sailing through the sea. It is a sailboat because sometimes life can be an easy breeze and it feels like you have no worries and nothing else matters except the moment you are currently in. Although sometimes life can almost feel like you’re in the middle of a terrible storm in the ocean ; everything seems to be going wrong in every way. Once you finally get out of the storm, the sun starts peeking through the clouds; the waves become calm again and the cooling sea breeze hits your face ever so softly. Knowing that everything is going to be okay.