Lê Ân Nhi

Vũ T Diễm Phúc

BC2.2 

1 December 2021 

Sweet time will not last forever

I was born in Tay Nguyen and experienced a wonderful childhood: growing up with the

aroma of cafes, blending in with the sound of the wind, and playing around with my dear friends.

As a young girl, I enjoyed fighting against other boys in my neighborhood, and certainly, being

the winner was the best. Sometimes, I even pretended to be an explorer, climbed trees, and

dreamed of searching for a new world. Every afternoon, i and my friends rode bicycles together,

trying new routes, then claimed an achievement whenever we found a new shortcut. When

summer came, we checked every fruit-trees for fruit, went fishing, and smiled together. All of

those memories are so sweet and beautiful, I can’t help but keep them as my most cherished

treasure deep inside my heart.

 I used to naively think that those carefree days would last forever.. until one day, my

parents told me that we were going to move to Dong Nai. At that time, I was just a 10 years old

girl, but everything that happened in the blink of an eye really shocked me. At first, I lied to

myself that it was a dream, but it wasn’t a dream at all, and I had to accept this reality.  Refused

to say goodbye to my friends, I was scared that I would cry if I had to meet them, I was scared

that I would not be able to play with them anymore. And in the end, after locking myself at home

for 3 days, I left without saying anything. 

 The morning I departed to Dong Nai was a dreamlike morning. Mist wrapped everything,

there were only some blurred colors left: blue of the sky, green of trees, and dark gray of the

road. The cold, moisture air was full of the faint aroma of cafe flowers. Contradicting to that

dreamlike morning I stepped heavily out of my house, wondering what was waiting for me

ahead. But still, I asked my father:

“Will we come back here one day?”

“Yes, if you get a good learning result next year, we will come back and visit our

neighbors. “

“I’ll wait for it then…”

That day has never come even though I always tried my best at what ever I do

The next day, I woke up in a strange place, met strange people, I knew there was

something missing deep inside my heart. I realized that I no longer could live like before

anymore. Instead of crying out loud to release my sadness, I chose to hold back, I chose to bury

my sweet childhood and tried to adapt to the new environment. I kept telling myself that

everything was okay, I’m not lonely at all. And it worked, I was really able to act fine although

nothing fine at all. Meeting new friends, learning new things, and pretending to be fine became a

familiar part of my life. 

One day, I watched a movie named “Inside out”- within the mind of a young girl Riley

are the basic emotions that control her actions, and when at the age of 11, Riley moves from

Minnesota to San Francisco for her father's new job, and then it is the process to adapt to the new

environment of Riley.  On watching that movie, I cried a lot… and it felt much better than
holding back. After that, I realized instead of hiding, I should have been honest about myself, but

still, I decided to close myself up.

Life went on, I grew up and became an independent person, knowing that nothing would

last forever, no matter how sustainable it may seem. Loved to make new friends, but was scared

of being too close with other people. just like that, I went through my secondary and high school

years without any close friends. And when I was preparing for my university entrance exam,

exhaustingly struggled alone, I realized that It might have been better if I had someone to share

my worries with.  

Now, I have already 18 years old, preparing for a whole new life ahead. Instead of being

scared to lose whatever has not happened yet, maybe I should willingly accept reality: people

come and people go. Everybody knows that it’s no use crying over spilled milk so the only thing

we should do is to enjoy sweet time with our whole heart and then just let it go, just wait and

enjoy new things ahead. And maybe, thanks to those sweet memories and the feeling of losing

something really important in the past, I have learned to appreciate every moment of my life,

learned to become a confident, free spirit and strong girl.