Personal Essay: An Image Of A Vietnamese Family

My freshman year in high school was unarguably the best year of my high school career, If I knew how the rest of my school career would go I probably would have cherished it a lot more. My sophomore year was going pretty well until one major internal change shifted my well being in the worst. I always knew about depression,but It was always one of those things that I never really thought about because I thought that only certain types of people experienced depression and I couldn't be one of them. was wrong. During the spring of sophomore year I fell into a depression, at the time I did not know what depression was ,nor did I know what was happening with me so I didn't know what to do, I didn't ask for help, and I didn't talk about it. I started to go down an even darker path with self medicating, drinking ,and self destructive behavior all of which I never told to anybody. As the winter and spring ended and summer began I came out of my rut and told myself that If that ever happened again, I want to get help and I don't want to be on a self destructive path

War is an evil to mankind that can bring devastation downfall for human existence. Those who withstand such catastrophic experience deserve all respects from all of us for all the bloodshed they have sacrificed. They are the real life heroes of men and women. My grandfather; Than Pham, and my uncle; Tuan Pham are veterans who survive through the Vietnam civil wars in 1960-1975. I feel really honor to have them as part of my family and be able to hear war stories from both of them. They take in account of story about obstacles which they face every day in combat. Both of my family members are very intelligent and lucky to be able to live through those hard times of violent, destruction, and havoc.

First and foremost, I am Asian American. My background is a blend of Vietnamese from my mother and Chinese from my father. I am bilingual. My native language is Vietnamese. I, however, still do plan on learning other languages which include Chinese and Korean. As for my work experience, I have worked extensively in home renovation. These projects include: general exterior repair, fencing, landscaping, and painting (interior and other applications of paint). I have worked with various contractors during these projects. They range from electricians to plumbers. I do plan on moving from home renovation to working in the technology field. My major of choice is Computer Information Systems. My ideal company to work for is Blizzard Entertainments.

From an objective point of view, my physical health was crumbling before my eyes. From a subjective point of view in my very disordered mind, I was completely fine. I have lost to, fought against, rose up from, and recovered from an eating disorder. I was able to solve this majorly risky problem. At age sixteen my self-esteem was extremely low and my weight was at an all-time high. A doctor would say I was healthy for my age; however, my insecurities would not let me see it. The desire to lose weight was so strong I began the dark path down the road of bulimia. At age sixteen, I was aware that I had an eating disorder and it was not until two years later that I would seek treatment for it.

I have had a close encounter with Bulimia itself. I used to be bulimic. I was only 10 years old when started being bulimic. I tried as hard as possible to hide myself from everyone. At first I didn 't know I was hurting my body. I was ashamed, and I thought I didn 't need help from no one because I had it all in control. But I didn 't, slowly Bulimia took over my whole life. I wasn 't making the choices anymore my eating disorder did. My coach gymnastics would always tell me to eat less and practice more and more and more. That became my life motto, eat less practice more. I didn 't realize what was happening to my life until September 25 2011, I was in one of my cheer leading competitions and I

Tet is hugely important day with Vietnamese people. It begin on January 1 , lunar calendar and a first day of the new year and last 3 days. To prepare for those days, everybody often buy more stuff such as : food, beverage, flows... beside people also clean and decorate the house. Especially in these days each family must have cakes which is made from glutinous rice. On the first day of the new year people usually go to temple to pray for peace and happiness their family. After they visit their relation , their friend. An indispensable thing in these days is that the adults often donate money for kids or grandfather donate money for you , your parents donate money for you... according to the belief if they donate for each other then they will

And the truth about having an eating disorder, both anorexia and bulimia, is that it never truly goes away; it gets easier to deal with through therapy, but the thoughts, and perhaps the actions, that come with the eating disorder will last forever. My recovery did not involve special diets, emotional discovery or spiritual enlightenment—it was simply me, armed with knowledge, finally taking control of my own behavior. Making the decision to choose recovery over suffering was one of the best choices I have ever made. Dealing with an eating disorder in high school was a challenge. Nevertheless, I learned to become determined. I trained myself to ignore my distorted thoughts and focus on school. The mere act of focusing was challenging when all I could think about was my appearance, but I had the determination to maintain straight A’s throughout high

Of all of the wars fought by the United States, the Vietnam War was by far the most controversial. After the defeat of French forces, Vietnam was divided into two sections: North Vietnam, and South Vietnam. North Vietnam became a Communist government under Ho Chi Minh, and South Vietnam eventually became a Republic under Ngo Dinh Diem. Under Diem's oppressive rule, the Viet Cong (those against Diem) grew in power, and the U.S. reacted to the Communist threat by sending in troops and economic aid, and advised Diem to make more Democratic Reforms. Because it was never actually declared a war by congress, the "Vietnam War" is technically the "Vietnam Conflict". Nevertheless, it is still called "one of the bloodiest wars of

Dương Quang Hiếu, as written in Vietnamese, has been my full name ever since my mother gave birth to me sixteen years ago with Dương being my family name. It was passed down from generation to generation through paternal bonds, being the last name of hundreds of people, literally meaning the Sun. In my culture, from the ancient times, the Sun symbolises the top of the world, shedding light to where darkness is dominating, thus bringing civilisation to where needed. Therefore, ever since I was born, my parents and relatives have always wanted me to live accordingly by learning well and making contributions to my nation to assist it in the quest to be more developed and civilised. That notwithstanding, I still have a long way to go before their

Besides bringing a paper, pencil, and myself to class. I would say, that I bring my Vietnamese cultural traditions and background. Growing up I learn a lot about my culture and tradition. I can see the differences and similarities to American culture today and, I can apply that to Cultural Geography. I’ve been to Vietnam too so, I can see resemblance, uniqueness, and opinions of both American and Vietnamese people.

A challenge I face everyday is that I do not speak the language my mom speaks, which is Vietnamese. One thing that I despise is when someone asks me to translate Vietnamese, or talk to someone that only speaks it. It really irks me when I am forced to do those things because I can barely speak at a comprehensive level. There was a new student in the school from Vietnam, and one of my teachers was aware that I “speak” Vietnamese. This is one of the challenges I have faced, people overestimating me.

Bulimia Nervosa- An eating disorder where the sufferer consumes an abnormally large quantity of food, or a “binge”, and rids themselves of the calories through methods of purging such as, but not limited to: Self-Induced vomiting, laxative/diuretic abuse, fasting, and compulsive exercising. In 2011, my freshman year of High School, I fell victim to the mental illness mentioned above. Though I wouldn't wish such an experience on my worst enemy, the recovery process taught me a lot about myself and who I am in the eyes of God. Without persevering through such a traumatic experience I wouldn’t be the young women I am today. As hard as it was, my recovery story is central to my identity.

There was a moment where I decided that my mom was wrong, but not in the context of a stereotypical, petty situation that is expected from a hormonal teenager (a young adult). My loving, logical mom who became a workaholic to raise me, had decided to allow a man she met in one week’s time to move into our home. Then she bought a car for him and filed for his citizenship papers and then he hit her so she distanced herself and then had my first sister with him. Then he hit her, but the police were involved this time. Then she had my second sister with him and then he hit her worse and yet she stilled stayed with him. This cycle of “and then” baffled me because my Vietnamese culture teaches me to always respect my elders and my American culture helps me to understand that a parent’s actions are for the betterment of their child. Yet I discovered that I did not know if I had it in me to respect my mom’s actions when I was the one who took care of my sisters so she could go to work. Nor did I think I could understand her actions when they were the cause of what made life so much more

"Come along class, stay with your partners and make sure you fill out the worksheet." Mr. Hiltonberry says as he guides our class through the entrance of the American Museum of Natural History. I originally didn't want to go I'd rather stay home and hang out with Thien. Why come to a museum about my culture when I can just learn from my family? But of course it doesn't work like that in my house. My mom never speaks about the war and my grandparents don't speak english. So I ended up here, straggling behind the class hoping no one would ask me anything about the Vietnamese culture but just my luck Big-Mouth-Tom comes bounding up.

In our daily, our grandmother and mother usually tell children for many legendary folk tales to sleep well at night. For example, Sue God For Rain, The Golden Star Fruit Tree, Chu Dong Tu And Princess Tien Dung, and The Price of Love are many rattling good stories in Vietnamese folklore. However, Love Story Of My Chau And Trong Thuy is the best folktale I have ever heard since I was a child. It is involved in the important and true historical event in Vietnam.