Personal Narrative: My Growing Up As A Hmong-American Student

Growing up as Hmong-American youth, I was raised by a father who joined the military when he was twelve years old. He was forced into the Vietnam war fighting for safety, peace, and a relationship with the United States of America. Through this military influence and discipline at such a young age, my father accepted the military lifestyle. He carried it over from the Vietnam war to my family today. Growing up, my father was always strict on me, especially when it came to my appearances and education. Indeed, if people saw how my father raised me, they would think he was a typical, stereotype Asian father who wanted his son to get A’s. But, to me, it was not anything like that. Instead, I saw that my father wanted me to do well in education because he understood that this world has a system, and by being successful in the education system, I can survive in any system since the education system is by far one of the

I was struggling to find out why I was losing sight of my favorite trait: being a social butterfly. When I first entered college, I was so energetic and spontaneous with all the people I met. But, after my sophomore year, I realized something changed within me. I stopped trying to keep friendships alive and barely surrounded myself with others, besides those who are close to me. Through this course and backpacking trip, I was able to gain insights on why I was like this. I believed it was the realization of knowing that because I was a social butterfly, it created plenty of problems with my past relationship. As time went by, I realized that I allowed a person who was no longer in my life affect my persona. During the backpacking trip, I took some time to stargaze and reflected on this issue. I am so grateful that I had the chance to do this since it has already starting to help me accept my social butterfly-ness. I am now more socially active with strangers and old friends in