Why Viet Nam?

...Why? It was the only reply my professor could muster, sitting perplexed at her desk, speechless, with her concerned brow staring widely at blank letter of recommendation, a requirement for my application to study in Vietnam. I guess I could see how it came as such an overwhelming shocker for her. In her day, the crowds seemed to be sweeping in the opposite direction, frantically looking for any handle to keep themselves out of Vietnam. She found it very ironic that I would eagerly pursue an opportunity to travel there. Yet how could I tell her that what had been perceived as such a horrible tribulation in her generation had actually been a long term ambition of mine; to see and experience a place that I could only behold through whimsical splinters of disjointed stories, dreams, and anecdotes revealed by people that I have held close to me.

You see, I've grown up around the Vietnamese-American culture since the age of 15, when I began studying a Vietnamese martial art. My teacher, Anh Phan, quickly became my mentor and even a parental figure, thus opening a window for me that overlooked a different world, one that has subsequently integrated into my identity. Since then, I began to assimilate to my surroundings and learn more about the plight of Vietnamese-Americans as well as the culture, language, and history of Vietnam. I began to attend Vietnamese language classes held at a local Vietnamese-American Buddhist temple here in Philadelphia. Eventually, after spending much time with the woman who instructed me in the Vietnamese language, both as her student and her English tutor, she became a strong maternal figure to me, further inspiring my search to understand and relate with Vietnamese-American culture.

My purpose in Vietnam was akin to that of anyone returning to his parents' homeland to dig for and investigate his roots, even if I was working from the other side of the equation. I wanted to learn more about a land that overflowed with history and nostalgia but lay only dimly lit in my imagination. The School for International Training (SIT) helped me to do this and more as I jumped headfirst into the splendor of Vietnam.

Though I may visit Vietnam again, I will never again have the opportunity to explore the richness of the country in the same way that I did as a student. Never in my life will I be set alongside 10 strangers who would evolve into my family for four months, as we created an intimacy based on our growth in experiencing together a new and wonderful world. My study abroad experience has indeed changed me in many ways. Being a student in Vietnam in an intense program like the one offered by SIT has allowed me to perceive the country through more angles than perhaps most non-SIT people I know, including many friends that had lived in Vietnam for most of their lives. SIT has given me a new sense of self-confidence since I know now that I can adapt to living among unique and different cultures and environments. Essentially, studying in Vietnam has given me a much deeper insight into the vastness of the world, making it a more familiar and friendlier place to live.