The Value Of Belonging

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Pages: 3

To me, happiness is a surprise which contains sincerity by holding hands, a reunion dinner, a sense of belonging, a family to hold on to, and above all- the privilege to never doubt one’s value in somebody's heart. This happiness was questioned during my transition from childhood to womanhood when I moved from my motherland to the United States.

I was born on a beautiful sunny day in Nha Trang, Vietnam into a family full of happiness. My family is big; a whopping total of twenty-one members who all follow the traditional culture of living together under one roof. My mother, aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents, who I lovingly call “ông ngoại” and “bà ngoại,” all lived in a house less than fifteen-hundred square feet. Due to living in each other's pockets, the occasional fight was inevitable. Once, my older cousin, Truong, picked on me and took my toys, so I told him, “đi ăn cức đi!” which means “go eat poop” in Vietnamese. Truong promptly told my mother, and she reprimanded me. You see, in my culture, each person is always shown appreciation and love; this idea is a product of our Asian culture that is instilled from the cradle: the idea of respect. To respect another shows to others an immediate reflection upon oneself.
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One of my favorite memories is sitting down on the floor to “ăn cơm,” the time to “have rice” with my family, while we chatted in Vietnamese about our day, the features of my mother language’s rich timbre floating through the dining room in a beautiful