Personal Narrative Of My American Dream

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

Throughout my childhood, my parents have taught me to be appreciative of my rights as an American and what to many, are privileges, and coming from a modest background, they have instilled me to respect and value others before myself, regardless of their economic status. Because of my parents’ hardships, I have been taught a mantra of “work hard for a better future”, and I later learned that my father’s true dream was beyond achieving personal success, but rather, he wanted to pave a way to success for my sister and me. I believe that it is my responsibility to fully take advantage of my opportunities, because my American Dream is still alive. While I carry my parents’ background, I do not share their history of poverty, and I am met with new open doors and resources that my parents were not as fortunate to have. I want to pursue a higher education, and I aspire to become a stem cell scientist, which will allow me to contribute to research that holds promises of new cures and treatments. However, I am not driven by the appeal of fame and recognition, but instead, I want to make my impact on the world by contributing to the advancement of human health and improving the quality of people’s