Fall of Saigon - Our life in America

April 30th marks the day where we were exiled from Vietnam.  

With only a few weeks left until she was due with her first born, my Mother and Father found a small 10 person boat to escape to the nearest country - Thailand.  Three days after they have gotten on the boat, they were no where near the destination but were within a few miles away from the border of the country that spat them out and swore to kill them if found... days later, out in the ocean while giving birth, my eldest brother was born, and a few days later it was the same place in which he died.

Looted from everything they've ever had and threatened to be raped and pillaged, they survived.

The Philippines was their sanctuary and a place where they recovered, and then it was finalized that the land of opportunity awaited them.

While America was better than what we could've had in Vietnam being the children of the enemy, life here in America wasn't always too grand.  But when you had nothing, you had everything.

To this day, I know that my siblings and I still can't flinch when we see roaches while we eat. I feel too privileged with owning more than 3 pairs of shoes....and I'm afraid, I'm afraid to get to a point where I forget what it's like to have nothing but the most important things in life.

And the funniest part of my life so far, is that a man would leave me because I couldn't appreciate the material  and superficial things in life the way he did.