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How Vietnam Changed My Life

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Jackie Robinson once said“A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives.” Traveling to Vietnam changed my life forever. In 2012 I visited three different orphanages while in Vietnam. They gave me a new appreciation for what I took for granted. Citizenship, teamwork, and persistence have helped me break through both language and culture barriers. I decided to have a fundraiser for the children at Tam Ky baby orphanage. I designed a raffle, which raised $1100 for Tam Ky baby orphanage. A few weeks later weeks later on April thirteen my mom, Nana, and I boarded Korean Air, flight 036, for a fourteen and a half hour flight. After we landed in Korea, we boarded one last five-hour plane ride to Da Nang, Vietnam. A few …show more content…

Thanh Tam school is truly a remarkable school that takes care of children with a wide variety of physical and mental disabilities. The school takes in children with disabilities resulting from exposure to Agent Orange and disabled children from deprived families. The school is run by Sisters of St Paul of Chartres, a marvelous group of women that take care of these children. We were lucky enough to attend Thanh Tam carnival which helped raise money for their school. At the carnival, we played many games with the ecstatic children. For example, we played ring toss, but instead of trying to get the rings around a peg, we had to try and get it around a gooseneck! We also made a wish by writing it on a piece of paper, tying it to a balloon, and letting it go. The delighted children gazed at the sky hoping that their dream would soon come true. The children went around the carnival laughing and grinning, partaking in every single game. During the carnival, children with the disabilities were selling their spectacular art. There were bookmarks, sketches, sculptures, and the most astonishing paintings. These wonderful and special kids were so unaware of their magnificent

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“There is at the outset a very obvious... connection between the war in Vietnam and the struggle I and others have been waging in America,”(Document E: Martin Luther King, Jr.). During the period of the Vietnam War, division struck the United States due to people’s vast opinions, this caused a rift in the country and began protests. Citizens of the USA did have legitimate reasons to protest the Vietnam War, but not all agreed with that. American citizens had many different reasons to protest the Vietnam War, but the biggest reason was that people were realizing how horrific wars truly were.

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As the Cold War raged on, the United States continued to try and contain the spread of communism. A popular belief during this time was the domino theory, which stated that if a country fell to communism, the surrounding countries would also fall. Therefore, the United States began sending aid to the South Vietnamese in order to resist the communist North. However, this quickly escalated into more and more troops being supplied, and the Vietnam War began to take shape. The Vietnam War would be marked by failure in both military and political leadership, angering the American public at every turn.

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On my father’s first day in America, he was shoved into a compact 1-person apartment along with two other refugees and was merely granted $19 a week to accommodate for basic expenses, including food and transportation. Despite such desperate circumstances, he maintained an optimistic outlook, and while hard times were ahead, my father knew that new opportunities were also awaiting him in the land where the American Dream thrives. My father initially left Vietnam as a last desperate hope to escape Vietnam’s strict communist government, where a future of military service was inevitable for young boys, who came from families of lower social statuses. As an orphan, my father fell victim to poverty and suffered from food insecurity and insufficient

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I don’t know what I expected, but it wasn’t this. Learning and seeing first-hand the devastating effects that war has had on Vietnam is important to encourage our generation not to make the same mistakes. But these people have not just overcome the war but exploited it for money. Every inch of this wasteland has been distorted and widened for tourists, and the line between honoring and glorifying tragedy seems to have blurred. We board the bus home and I feel emotionally drained.

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