Personal Narrative: My American Identity

It was April 30, 1975 when millions of people struggled to leave what was known as Saigon. Both of my parents left a couple of years later to establish a life in a faraway country with the idea that they will never be able to return home. With some money in their pockets and hardly anything on their backs, they gripped onto their cultural values as they enter a new world. Growing up, my parents have always told me that my Vietnamese identity should always precede my American identity. This, of course, has caused a lot of confusion later in my adolescence years as I tried to figure out what it meant to be just a Vietnamese or just an American person. Mixing both cultures was not an option, especially when there are many opposing views. …show more content…
The program dedicates a couple of hours every day for us to do our homework. Occasionally, I was not able to complete my homework in time, so I would try to complete it at home instead. At first, my mom was okay with it, but she would later yell at me for not being able to complete it in YMCA. She told me that every other kid completes their homework and I am the only one struggling with it and so, she spanked me. I remember being so afraid of being spanked again that I started lying about it. Later that year, my dad went to parent-teacher conference and was told that I have not been handing in my homework. When asked why, I told him, “I don’t want to get into trouble.” Little did I know that this was a start to a pattern. According to Alfie Kohn, research shows that focusing too much on obedience may have a more negative affect on the child than permissive parenting style (2015). Children who were punished are more likely to become aggressive and antisocial later in life. I see myself in this research because although I was never an outgoing child, my antisocial tendencies escalated during my young adolescence years and I began to distanced myself from others even

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