Nhớ Nguồn

"Người Việt sống ở Mỹ."  Perhaps I've finally earned my place; no longer are we could-have-beens. The sensibilities and selflessness of the Vietnamese, the opportunities and open mind of the American, guide me.

It Couldn't Be Done BY  EDGAR ALBERT GUEST Somebody said that it couldn't be done       But he with a chuckle replied That “maybe it couldn't,” but he would be one       Who wouldn't say so till he’d tried. So he buckled right in with the trace of a grin       On his face. If he worried he hid it. He started to sing as he tackled the thing       That couldn't be done, and he did it! Somebody scoffed: “Oh, you’ll never do that;       At least no one ever has done it;” But he took off his coat and he took off his hat       And the first thing we knew he’d begun it. With a lift of his chin and a bit of a grin,       Without any doubting or quiddit, He started to sing as he tackled the thing   ...

Asian-American; a word with many meanings. Freedom . I believe that the world is open to me and that as long as I have the determination, I can seek and glimpse its infinite glory. There are no closed doors to me, only the ones that I put in front of myself. The sky is the limit and I've got a jetpack. Justice . I believe in an all encompassing sense of what it right in the world. I don't mean to push these on to other people, but I believe that I should be treated fairly. If I do something wrong, tell me what I did wrong and how I can fix it so I don't make the same mistake again. If I make you angry, tell me what I said or did so that I make the right decisions in the future. But more than anything, don't presume to force your beliefs on me and expect me to simply accept them without a say of my own. Conviction . I thought myself a lazy person before, and in truth I probably was, but even now, when I'm working more and harder than ever, I still ...

I'm not a "yes-man," I'm a masochist.

With summer almost over, I've now finished another four classes. Two of them I won't see again, one starts again next week, and the last one is currently studying with me. This is my currently studying class. It's weird, even after working for my company for more than a year now, this was the first class I ever taught from one course to the next. These kids are an insanely clever, if rambunctious, bunch of kids.  This is one of my summer classes. It's weird that I wasn't very excited to teach them in the beginning, but our relationship grew much stronger after the midway point of the course and, in the end, I was sad to see them go. Another very smart class. That kid in the blue shirt had sharp wit and a good sense of humor. In other news, I've started running again! I've been a bit zealous lately, and as a result, I'm now signed up for not one, but two races! At the end of August, I'll run in Da Nang, and at the end of this year, just...

You were absolutely right, man. What we have now, it is a family, and it's one that I will be sad to lose. I remember the time, almost one year ago, when I was the only teacher at our center along with two TAs. After class one day, I looked at our empty TSC. There were no toys or papers strewn across the table, no names on the lockers, or hardly any books on the shelves. I thought to myself, "I wonder what it will be like when this place isn't so quiet anymore, when the lights will be turned on and the room will be filled with the buzz of activity. I could never have imagined what I would be given. Yes, there have been ups and downs, but the experience I have had with all of you is unlike any other that I have ever had. It is with a heavy heart that I admit our joy is only temporary. Like you, I want this family, too, but our great misfortune is that we were destined to lose each other right from the beginning; it is the nature of our industry. The clock started counting...