My time in Burma

When people ask me what is so unique about me, I usually dont know what really is special
about my life. However, I do know for a fact that my life is very eventful. It can be referred to as a
special adventure. My first life adventure is the time when I was living in Myanmar. My time in Myanmar
was very short, it was two years. However, in those years, I experienced changes every day of my life.
This time was possibly the stepping stone for me to become who I am today. This was the time when I
learned the idea of differences, the idea of determination and the idea of adaptation. This was a small
time frame yet a very important part of my life and it was the time I studied in my first International
school.

It all started when my sister (Thao) and her husband (Jason), an American citizen, announced
that our family would be moving to Myanmar in three months. At this time, I was thirteen years old. I
was a very young boy. Unlike how most others would react to such an announcement, I was surprisingly
excited and happy. Some people even now still think that I was very brave. For me, I think it was the
thought of how cool that would be to be able to fly on a real airplane. I had always been dreaming about
flying. To most Vietnamese, being able to travel to a different country is a blessing. Nevertheless, I was
happy because this was the first time I could go out of my country and see something completely
different.

Three weeks went by fast, and the time that my family had to move had come. It has been ten
years since that day; the special memory still lingers in my brain. It was a day unlike any other day of my
life. I remember my eldest sister standing in a distance, she was by herself waving goodbye to me and
Thao. Even though I was very excited to get on that big airplane, there was something in my gut that
told me it would be a long time before I would ever see my eldest sister again. From out of nowhere,
teardrops started to form in the corner of my eyes. The funny thing about this was when I tried to wipe
those tears away, more just started to form. I was confused because I should be happy; why would I be
crying at this moment? And it came to me clearly that I would miss my sister and everything I would
leave behind. The more I thought about this day, it also came to me that I felt sad for my sister because
she was there all alone. I dont know what it is like for others to be leaving their countries for the first
time. For me, it taught me the real meaning of family love and the special bond between people who
truly love you no matter who you would become.

Three hours of flight was all it took for us to get to Myanmar. I was still amazed at seeing the
earth from far above for the first time. I was probably still daydreaming about reaching out of the
airplanes window and touching the floating cloud the plane flew by. As I stepped out of the plane, I
could feel the different air in Myanmar. It was not as humid as Vietnam, and the air felt lighter. We got
picked up by a driver, and within an hour, we came to an apartment complex. It was very nice to be able
to sit down and sleep after a long trip. I slept tight and waited for new adventure that was about to
come the next morning.

One of the changes that I experienced was the school. My sister registered me to study in the
first international school soon after we arrived. Within a week, I had to attend a new school. This school
was called the Diplomatic school. My memory of what it was like to study in this school is hazy.It was
difficult to understand everything I learned. My first class was mathematics. A very nice teacher led me
into a small classroom. As she introduced me in front of the class, my heart pounded very hard. I was
nervous, confused and probably scared. It was not because I was scared of the group of ten students
sitting in front of me; it was more like a fear of being observed. I felt like an object while they were
studying me closely. It was an awkward feeling because I could see that they were not very friendly. The
thought of moving to a different country was not a bed of roses for me at all. As I settled in the nearby
table, being quiet, I was still trying to figure out what my teacher was talking about. Luckily enough, the
math class was extremely easy. I was feeling really good. Despite the stares that my fellow classmates
had been throwing at me, I kept my cool and raised my hand for most of the questions that the teacher
was asking in the class.

The bell rang and here came the next class, which was English. I could tell that it was not going
be a fun class because I had always been terrible at writing and understanding English. I was not good at
my own language so how could I be able to understand more English? As I opened the text book, a
zillion different words seemed to hit my face so hard that I felt like I needed a pair of glasses. The story
was actually a play that we were reading in the class called King Lear. Little did I know, the kind of words
they used for this play were not even close to modern English. It was some ancient language that
instantly put me to sleep. That class time was literally a torture session for me. I was an alien who did
not understand a single word of what lay in front of me. There were so many words that I did not
understand. I was not speaking the whole time sitting in that spot. Why on earth would they read King
Lear in an English class?

The rest of the day went by very quickly, much of it I cant remember. However, I still
remembered my break time. It was such a relief when the bell rang for a break. It was lunch-time for the
school. Everyone in the classroom carried their lunch box outside and to the back of the school where all
of the other students were also getting ready to eat lunch. I followed them and for the first time, I
understood what it was to be isolated. I stood in the lunchroom doorway like an idiot and tried to figure
out where I would be eating. Everybody seemed to have a group of their own to eat together with. I
quickly found my great escape when I spotted an empty table. I have never felt this lonely before
because in all of my previous schools, I was always popular and had friends. Eating my lunch, I started to
regret that I traveled; I could have stayed back in Vietnam and never have to endure such a lonesome
time as that moment. When one is very lonely, he or she needs help. My savior was Ankit, an Indian
student from a different grade who spotted me sitting by myself. Ankit went to sit on the other side of
the table. I was too shy to say anything because I just wanted to be by myself. But Ankit spoke first and
we introduced ourselves. I was reluctant to say anything more until that Indian kid brought five or six
more friends of his to talk to me. Surprisingly, they all seemed to be very friendly unlike my classmates.
The conversation was about where I was from and what Vietnam is like. Suddenly, I felt accepted and I
thought to myself: Well, it is not that bad at all!

After my first day at school, I was fed up with the amount of English I had to learn. Everything
was hard because my vocabulary was very limited to be able to decode all of that jibber jabber English in
King Lear. Every night, I would stay up late and translate all of the new words into Vietnamese and those
nights never ended before two in the morning. I felt down and upset. I was frustrated because in most
of my classes, I was not doing so well. It was not because I was stupid; it was because I did not
understand most of what I heard in class. I was irritated most of the time. However, things got better
because I talked to more people at school. They seemed to understand that I barely spoke English at
that time. At the same time, I barely understood their conversation. But I felt grateful because I got to
be included in most of the fun games they played during break time. I played soccer for most of the time
with them, and it helped because I didnt have to talk, I just had to kick the ball.

It was hard trying to make friends as well as catch up in all of my classes. For the first six months
studying in Myanmar, I was not really paying much attention to anything else other than studying. It was
an amazing thing studying in a different type of language. It seemed extremely hard at first but I started
to understand things better. I could pick up a conversation and started to express myself better
whenever I hung out with friends. It came to me that it would be so much easier to get better at English
when I talked more. However, within such a short time, it was still extremely difficult for me to
understand English courses. Sometimes I would get very sad because there was not much I could do
because learning a new language takes time. However, whenever I was down, I seemed to get the right
aid at exactly the right moment. One night when I was studying late, my sister came to talk to me and to
check on whether I was doing alright. She could see that I was very tired as well as frustrated with the
homework that I was working on. The first thing she did was giving me a big hug, I meant literally the
biggest hug that I had ever been given. I was surprised when she told me to close the book and get to
bed. I suddenly felt so much better; it was one of the most special things that has ever happened to me.
I went to bed that night and dreamt about how great I could be if I would not give up. That was the first
time I learned about the determination to be able to go far even though I was in a difficult position. I did
not consider it an act of bravery to go through those months of culture shock; it was in fact the love that
I was given from my family that helped me. Without my sisters words of encouragement, there was
doubt that I would ever make it to be who I am now. To many people, when there is a cliff right in front
of them, in times of desperation, they would choose to jump right off that cliff in to a dark, bottomless
pit of depression. For me, there was so much love that I decided to back off and put myself in a more
optimistic state of mind. I realized that there was no turning back to what I had left behind in Vietnam. I
consistently told myself that I could conquer anything if I try.

Everything was going right; I was adjusting fairly well in the Diplomatic school. When I expect it
the least, the most unpredictable event starts to show up. After roughly a year of studying in the
Diplomatic school, my sister decided to enroll me in another international school. This school is called
the International School of Yangon(ISY). When I heard the news, all I thought was the tough time that I
had gone through for the past year. The nightmare of being lonely and isolated once again was haunting
me again. This time, the feeling that I had was a mixture of fear and excitement. I was probably scared
of walking through the lunch room without knowing anyone. On the other hand, I was excited because I
was about to attend one of the biggest schools in the nation.

The International School of Yangon was about five minutes walking distance from my house. As
my sister and I approached the school, I could tell it is so much bigger than the Diplomatic one. As the
car drove away, I waved good bye to my sister and tried to fake a smile as if nothing can crush me. I did
not want to make her feel worried but deep down I knew that she was thinking about another day of
mental torment that I would have to endure. Without any hesitation, I started my way up to the steps
that led to classrooms. These steps seemed to never end and I hated the feeling as time slowly went by.
I could not help but picture what would happen in the next fifteen minutes when I had to see all of my
new friends. Would they be friendly? Or would they study me like the ones in the Diplomatic school?
The thought of being observed did not stop me from approaching a teacher who was waiting for me
ahead of time. She was a nice teacher. She seemed to sense how nervous I was while walking quietly
right beside her. Turning around with a big smile, she told me that I would have so much fun at this
school. I prayed to god that she was not lying.

Finally, that moment came when I entered a small classroom. Everybody was about my age. I
could see that everything seemed a lot more relaxed. There were conversations everywhere, and the
people in the classroom were smiling, talking and joking around with each other. I was relieved because
they did not really notice me when I walked in that class. The class started and the teacher quickly
introduced me to everyone. This time, my English was a little better, and I felt comfortable telling them
about myself. It was surprising to get a feeling of being welcomed by my new classmates. They did not
stare at me during the whole time. In fact, there were oh and ah about how cool I was being from
Vietnam. It was probably the best feeling of my life because it seemed like a fun group of students. I was
invited to sit next to a girl named Yoon Hee. I sat next to her and started to get to know her. At that
moment, I felt connected to someone for the first time, it was very special. For a brief second, I thought
I really like her. Watching her smiling and talking during the whole time in the class, time seemed to go
by real fast. I was paying much attention to Yoon Hee instead of the boring science class. It is difficult to
explain what it was like to have feeling for a girl for the first time. Even now, I cant forget that smile.
Definitely she was my first crush.

Unlike studying in the Diplomatic school, ISY was such a good school. I had a chance to study
with many students from different countries. There were Americans, Koreans, Chinese, Thai, Canadians
and students from many other countries. What was so unique about this school was the feeling of
community, friendship and a sense of family. My friends from the classroom hung out together in a
common room. Surrounding me was laughter all the time. If there was the most unforgettable memory I
had about my younger school life, I would say it was the times I got to spend with my friends. The
friends that even until now still talk to me once in a while. They were the true friends that I would never
forget. This was one of the best times of my life because I was included in many groups of friends. There
were no worries and no isolation feeling. I was as optimistic as ever.

Another good thing about ISY was the types of involvement that I worked on. ISY offered a wide
range of different types of sports, one of the aspects that was lacking in the Diplomatic school. What
was so cool about being in a sport team was the sense of teamwork that I had gained. For that short
time of one year being in ISY, I was selected for the Badminton and Soccer varsity teams. It was indeed a
privilege to be selected out of all other talented athletes at the school. Being in the sport teams taught
me about being competitive. It made me realize that sometimes in life the determination of ones goal
combined with the competitiveness would make the goal achievable. This philosophy has always been
my survival skill for all of what happened in my life during the later years. I had the skillset of working
with many people by looking past the differences in term of where my teammates were from. On the
other hand, I found out that I was quite likeable to many students. Studying in ISY while involved in so
many other activities showed me an ultimate way of making friends and adapting to any environment
that I was thrown into. This was probably one of the reasons why I became popular at any school that I
attended. However, there was no doubt that I did go through tough times in order to achieve such an
accomplishment. I realized that in order to become known to everyone, I had to step out of my own
comfort zone no matter what it costs. That was indeed quite a brave decision. It takes guts for anyone to
step in the water for the first time without knowing what lies beneath the waves. Sometimes, I thought
of myself as a bold person because during that time, I rarely thought of the consequences. I was quite a
daring person. Looking back through all that time, I could not believe I used to be that nervous, scared
and confused guy who stood at the doorway of the lunch room in the Diplomatic school. I guess changes
didnt push me down but gave me a different self.

When somebody asked me about what my biggest fear was, I honestly thought that it was the
feeling of being unappreciated. Many people would say the same thing. It is because without being
appreciated, one tends to hate himself. That was why I always feel grateful that I attended ISY. I was
one of the top mathematics students in the class. I would be surprised if there was another more
awesome class in existence. Dr. Jacque was my math teacher. There was no doubt that she was
impressed with how well I did in her class. However, it was not the class that mattered; it was how she
guided me through life just because she showed me that I have potentials to be great. Every time I got a
good grade from her exam, the first thing she did was congratulate me in front of the whole class. I have
to admit, I still need to thank her because without that special treatment, Yoon Hee would never have
wanted to study with me one on one. Dr. Jacque was a devoted teacher and she made me realize that
whatever I did, I was pretty much the coolest person ever. I felt good about myself even more. Dr.
Jacque and I still meet sometimes and we have become friends rather than just teacher and student.
She definitely taught me the lesson about how to treat others that made me become so likable
everywhere I go. I could see that by appreciating others for what they did, even if it was the smallest
achievement, one could change a person completely just by giving compliments and appreciating that
person.

The time I lived in Myanmar was short because my brother in law had to move to the Philippines
for his job. In those two years, I went through drastic changes both physically as well as mentally. The
memories were unforgettable. The lessons I learned were invaluable. I become a much more mature
person compared with anybody I am studying with right now in college. I appreciate important things in
life such as my family, experiences, accomplishment and my precious memory of my first foreign
country. I am proud of what I have become over the last few years. If there was a wish, I would love to
be able to travel back in time just to pat my old self and say: It will get better because life is much more
exciting when you look ahead for new adventures!