As a 5’11, 16 year old American teen I see this place through my own set of eyes. In the night the flashing lights and tall structures stand out like fireflies on a starless night. In the morning, construction cranes are like fishermen, reeling giant concrete fish and stacking them into piles to help this metropolis bloom into a modern, urban environment. These times of day share the same hot, sticky, and humid air. People are packed like sardines in the streets trying to get from one place to another. Most people would use these words and phrases to describe some urban city in the US like Los Angeles or New York. However what I’m describing is a city about 8600 miles away. I’m talking about Ha Noi, Viet Nam; a wondrous place where motorcycles run rampant. More importantly it is the outcome of the most important decision of not only high school, but my life so far; the decision to spend my senior year abroad.
I guess I should start with the “why I decided to come here” story. If I had a nickel for every time someone has asked me “Why Vietnam?” I could take a vacation to Hawaii every day of my life. This typically led to more questions and statements such as “Why during your senior year?”, “You’re crazy!”, “But you won’t be able to go to prom!”, “You’re not going to be able to do marching band at all there!” or the “Why are you going to give up your senior season of football, a starting varsity position on a field that you have put blood, sweat, and tears on for years, and two amazing hours under those beloved Friday night lights that seem to act as a beacon attracting the whole town?” This is not to mention the adrenaline rush and the happiness received from putting that orange and black uniform on; especially when I had to endure the torture of not being in pads and a helmet last season.
From my fundraising website to the day to day conversations with people who know me and who don’t, I’ve had to constantly state my two main reasons for going; I want to make a difference in the world and I want a new experience. I knew what I was going to be giving up and I knew I was going to miss some of it, but I also knew opportunities like this came few and far between. I saw that this experience was going to help prepare me for the real world, put me on the path to achieve my career goals and a better life. I could clearly see that the benefits were going to far outweigh the costs (both monetary and personal). I expected to be slightly surprised by some of the culture and customs, be in a rigorous academic environment, and by the end of nine months to have a completely new perspective on the world. I certainly didn’t plan on experiencing the latter of these so soon.
It’s not that I had a flat out epiphany, nor did I go on a soul searching journey in the Sapa Mountains to find inner meaning. It was more of a kindling, gradual realization. With a little help from a glance into my past and a story I was told, it began to ignite into a wildfire; one that’s going to impact not only my decisions in college, but for the rest of my life.
I was at an art gallery this afternoon and someone was telling me the Vietnamese legend about how after fish swim for miles and miles, they reach this gate and become dragons. It was one of those fables about how hard work pays off, and I started thinking about home and how much time has passed since I started kindergarten and how I never would have pictured myself being in Viet Nam this year. My attention then drifted to all the things that were done to get me here. My parents sacrificing their hard earned money and me sacrificing my sleep and extracurriculars are just examples of things given up to move forward.
It’s kind of ironic that it took me three weeks abroad to fully grasp the American Wall Street catch phrase of “There is no free lunch.”This concept is a saying that I’ve heard all my life, all boiling down to one point that is made very clear from my experience here; you have to give things up to make room for something better. I’ve come to realize that everything comes at a cost. Normally that cost requires hard work and devotion to the task at hand which by nature has you lose out on something. It’s this mindset that I’ve learned and developed from being here that’s going to influence my decisions. It makes me appreciate things more because of what it took to get them and it makes me understand that the only way I’m going to achieve my goals is through hard work and sacrifice. It’s been 3 weeks and I’m already starting to look at the world through a different lens. I’m really looking forward to my next eight and a half months here. I can already tell it will have some of the most important decisions and learning experiences not only in my school year, but in my life as a whole.
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