My Grandfather’s Story - By: Ha Huynh

Some Americans may wonder why many Vietnamese went to America to live and work. Even when I was a child, and knew that my Dad’s family immigrated to America, I would ask my mom why they did not live in Vietnam anymore. Although she explained it for me many times, I did not really understand very well. Until my family came here, my grandpa told us everything. He had to leave because our country’s condition was disordered at that time. There was a partition between North and South Vietnam. It created two different regimes: the communism and republicanism. Particularly, the communism was for the North Vietnam, and the republicanism was for South Vietnam. In addition, the communist regime was very ruthless; they used to exploit people from the republic regime by forcing them to work and provide foods for them. As a result, the people who could not accept oppression and maltreatment of the authorities, went to find a way that they could escape the dark life.
My grandparent’s family had six children: two boys and four girls total. Everybody in my grandparent’s family was short, except my dad. He looked better than the others did. They lived in a small town in South Vietnam where I was born and grew up. Although it was just countryside, its scenery was very attractive. It had a flock of storks always flying over the paddy field, every day before the sunset. The farmers used to say, it was a time that the stork got out from school and came back to home. Moreover, the smell of the ripe paddy field was very sweet. It made up a flavor of the native land. Besides, there was a sound very clear from the chicken, who used to crow to wake people up every morning. Sometimes, some people used to use it as an alarm clock though. This was very magnificent small town. At a time I was growing up, that was a communistic period, the time when the people did not have any freedoms or possessions. They lived in misery and difficulty. They had to farm day by day, but their harvest did not belong to them. The landowners were the people who owned the certain land. The landowners and communists appropriated a greater part of their harvest and only divided it depending on their ability (if someone worked hard, they would be given more than the opposition). In my grandpa’s family, it was just my dad and uncle who tried to farm all day, because they were the boys in the house. Although they worked hard and exhausted themselves, they did not divide the rice in their favor, it was just enough for meals in a day. At that time, my grandpa joined America’s army, which was why he could not help his family. The purpose he joined America’s army was because he wanted to oppose the communist regime and to bring the freedoms back to the republican regime. Nevertheless, not everything carried out like what he wanted. The communists hated the people who worked for Americans. They were afraid of the Americans would come and fight them. However, Vietnam had not made friends with America yet. Therefore, they tried to find many people easy to arrest and imprison, even my grandpa. While he was in prison, my grandma had to take care of their children and everything in the house. The women used to be weak, but she was a strong mother who took the responsibility to care for the whole family. Yet that was not enough, when my grandpa was not at home, the communists tortured them all the time. They used to come and search the house. Not until six years later was my grandpa freed. That was a long time after he got out from prison and came back home.
In 1989, America’s government sponsored a program, which is the priority for the people who used to work for America’s army. It was called “H.O.” That was really a big chance for the people who wanted to escape a dark and miserable life and to have freedom and possess products for which they worked. However, if they wanted that, they had to leave their native country. It was hard to leave the country where they were born and grew up after a long time. It was a big loss for them too. If they decided to leave, they would lose their possessions like house, land, paddy, etc. Thus, my grandpa wavered a lot about this, but because of his family, his family’s future, he thought America was an open country, so it would be easy to live and work there. After that, he decided to apply to go to America. He waited for 3 years until 1992, when his application was approved. The first time they lived in America, it was very difficult. When they moved from this country to other country, the situations and conditions was dissimilar. On the other hand, my grandparents were old, 52 years. This age could not do anything heavy or hard, but they tried to find jobs, which was just $6 per hour. Therefore, their income was not much. That was why they rented and lived in an old apartment. It was not really comfortable and convenient, because the apartment usually was very cramped and did not have enough furniture to satisfy their needs. In spite of that, they did not give up. They tried more and more, and finally, their lives became better than before. They bought a new house, had everything in the house, and enough room for each person too. When the life seemed come easier for them, my grandpa thought about sponsoring my family. My family had five people: my dad, mom, brother, sister, and me. My grandpa wanted us three siblings to have a better education and life. Doing this, it was not easy for him because he had to pass an examination in English to take his citizenship. At his age, it was very hard to learn English, because his brain seemed not to be active anymore. Everybody thought that he could not, but he passed luckily. We were really surprised and happy. After that, he applied for us to come. Now, I am living here and attending this class. I feel that I am lucky because this is where I can have great conditions for studying and developing my future.
Maybe my story will be boring for somebody, but it is a true one though. Now, all my family is living together. Nothing can compare to that happiness. To me, I always think of my grandpa with the best admiration, and respect. After all that he spent, he always taught me “There are a lot of difficulties in our life, but if we try our best, we can succeed.” That is a valuable lesson that I have learned from him. I will remember this lesson and it will belong to me all the time. I am proud of my grandpa, who is a patient person, who always behaved with kindness to people, who loved his children, grandchildren, and me.

Another Innocent Life Taken - By: Ha Huynh

You’re lying on the table aware of the life growing inside you, but your ignorance and not wanting this responsibility has you blinded. And before they even have a chance to see what the world has to offer you’ve ended this babies life. Aborting a child is a very heartless act that should be stopped. When aborting a child you’re ending an innocent life. Do people ever think about all the women that can’t even conceive a child? Aborting a child is basically legal murder. Through their actions people who chose to abort their babies show that all that matters is them when they terminate the innocent life.
The act of aborting an innocent child is very heartless. The fact that people kill the child when it’s barely a fetus doesn’t change the fact that its murder. Abortion is a crime that’s been committed millions of times over the years with no consequence or punishment. However if the baby has just been born and not aborted and the doctor stabs it with a knife it’s considered murder, and that doctor will be put in jail. Why is it ok for people to believe one minute that the fetus is not an individual person but the minute that the fetus enters the world it is this new life and you want to punish who ever took it. Some even say the abortion is not a matter of life and death but research has proven that a fetus is a living organism. So come one people let’s stop this heartless act.
The minute a child is aborted any potential that child had is stripped away from the child. The child will never have the chance to continue the bound that it’s started to build with its mother. The world will never get the chance to see if the baby was our next senator or president. People even say that the mother has the choice to just abort because it’s her body. But does anyone ever stop to think that even though the fetus depends on its mother for nine months of its life it’s still a life separate from the mother. We need to stop taking the lives of these innocent babies.
For every child that’s aborted nine times out of ten there is a women out there in the world that can’t even have a child. There are many reasons women can’t conceive maybe it’s their life style or health. Maybe they will risk their life trying to give birth. Either way no matter the reason all the babies that are aborted could go to those women. I mean really think about it you can fill out paper work to kill the child why not fill out paper work to keep the life. Then once your term is up you can just pass the life on to a loving family. Then the women that couldn’t conceive a child will be happy and we haven’t cut off the cycle of life.
I hope that I have at least brought forth a little understanding in the ongoing argument. So we can all start helping put an end to the heartless crime that is terminating life in our country. And I also hope that with alternative of giving the child up for adoption after birth will start to change the minds of the women seeking abortion. So the next time you think of abortion think about this:"And if we can accept that a mother can kill her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another?"-pro life quotes daily.

"You are a monster girl, not me."

_By Ha Huynh_

    Once upon a time, there was a student named Jenny Huynh. Jenny came to America for 1 year and she enrolled in English class as a new student. In her first day of class, she felt elated and excited to introduce herself to everyone and became friends with everyone in her class. However, as Jenny noticed there was an odd girl glanced at she from she has started getting in class till she has done communicating and making friends with others. If you are in that situation, you will not tell what this girl wants from Jenny. At that moment, Jenny asked herself, “What did I do wrong? Why does this girl look at me like I am a monster?”

During the class time, Jenny did not mind much about that girl anymore. At the end of class, the professor passed out for students the assignment to prepare for next class. In the assignment, it required “each student have to read a short story and write a report about your reading, then do a presentation as well.” While Jenny was standing by the table and read the requirement, that girl suddenly came close to Jenny and said, “Hey, the monster girl, I bet you can write a good report and do best on the presentation”, her voice seemed angry something. But Jenny stood still and being quiet. You know when we are being quiet; it is such a wise answer for smart peoples, when there is someone who thinks little of us like that.

Jenny just came to America, her English skills was not as proficient as others. However, she encouraged herself and tried very hard on this assignment. She was determined to get the high score out of her class. Basically, she wanted to prove to that girl that she was not a monster girl at all. After all these hard times, she finally got through everything and prepared for the next class. Jenny also said, “Let see who was a monster girl at the end.” When the next class started, each student had to come up and did the presentation. After everyone finished their own, the professor started announcing the score for each student. Here was a worried moment came to everyone to know what their score was. When neither Jenny nor that girl knew their score yet, that odd girl looked at Jenny and laughed teasingly. As a result, the professor said, here was a highest score of this assignment. At that point, the odd girl seemed enthusiastic and confident that was hers. But when the professor said, “It approved for Jenny Huynh.” You cannot imagine how happy Jenny was at that time. Jenny was very happy and proud of herself for what she has been through. Everyone in class congratulated her ardently. Meanwhile, that odd girl was very angry and felt ashamed by Jenny’s success. Then, she stepped out of class and disappeared immediately.

After all, Jenny could prove that she was not a monster girl like what that odd girl thought about her. Besides, she was a hard-working for class and kind-hearted girl to others. And that girl was just the one who was completely a monster girl ever.