|
We stepped off a small plane in New Hampshire. I looked around, and the ground |
| was all white.
I shouted, "Wow, there are a lot of cottons in this country." Then
I |
| reached out my
hand to catch one, and it melted before my eyes. And it was cold, in fact, |
| I was freezing.
Our sponsors were waiting for us. We all shook hands. Then they led |
| us to a van.
We boarded, and they drove us to our rented home. On the way, they |
| gave my father
beer from a small cooler. I was sure that my father was happy (Beer!). |
| However, my
father would opt for Lao moonshine ("lout cow") any day. Cigarette |
| smoke filled the
van. My stomach was twisting and churning on its own. But I held |
| on until we got
to our house. |
|
After the van door opened, I hurried out and ran to a nearby tree in the dim night. |
| Next, yes, I
spilled my guts to mother earth. Then we got in the house. We took off |
| our shoes
(customary), and our sponsors kept their shoes on. The house was all |
| furnished (sofa,
TV, clothes, food (American--no "par daak" and sticky rice), and the |
| whole nine yard.
Next, a lady made us peanut butter and grape jam sandwiches. Shoot, |
| I gobbled that
down like there was no tomorrow. I thought that was a treat, for it was |
| buttery and
sweet. The sandwiches kept coming, and I kept eating ; of course, I |
| shared with my
siblings, too. Hey, I was not that hungry; I just liked the taste (Yeah!). |
|
After I was full, a young American girl kept looking my way and smiled. What was |
| I supposed to do
except smiled right back at her. Exhausted from running around, I |
| sat on a sofa to
relax. Then that American girl came to sit next to me. And the next |
| thing I knew--she
jumped me and tried to kiss me. At the time, I was shocked, so I |
| pushed her away.
She fell on her butt, but she kept coming. Of course, I ran from her. |
| And she would not
stop chasing for her kiss (so aggressive). Whew, finally, she was |
| tired and
stopped. |
|
Then we started school. And my father went to work for one of my sponsors' wood |
| shop, making
candle holder ornament. I did not know any English, so I created my own |
| sign language
(looked like a standup comedian). Especially when I needed to use the |
| bathroom, that
was a lot of effort (no details). In class, I was paired up with an |
| American girl
that taught me the alphabets and how to count. I learned very quickly. |
| She had braces
and her teeth was yellow. Gosh, when she opened her mouth, I would |
| just about fall
over. Not to be mean, but her mouth stank! When she talked, I had to |
| cover my nose.
I could not believe that the teacher did not pick up on that cue and |
| allowed me to
suffer. Better believed it, those guy friends sure taught me a lot of |
| curse words.
For when I said some, some would laugh and some would frown. Over |
| time, I had to
learn to weed out the good from the bad. |
|
During recess, I played tag with the classmates. Experienced from Laos, whoever |
| was it could
never catch me. When I was about to be tagged, I would zigzag to the |
| side.
Missing, sometimes the tagger would fall. Everyone would be laughing. Now |
| the girls really
took a liking in me, for I could see in their eyes and smiles. Too bad, |
| I did not know
any English then. |
|
Then summer came. We moved from the house to an apartment. Then my parents |
| grew victory
garden in an open field near the apartment (tomatoes, string beans, lettuce, |
| carrots, sweet
potatoes, onions, and etc.). We usually did not have to buy vegetables. |
| One day, our
sponsors took my brother and me to summer camp. Being adventurous, |
| my brother and I
tour the camp and checked out the different activities. Anything I |
| liked, I would
invent my own sign language to participate. I especially liked shooting |
| bow and arrows.
Ouch, I would sometimes get bruises from the string snapping |
| against my arm.
Next, I was off to play tag with other kids, for I heard laughing and |
| screaming from a
nearby park. I taught them how to play tag by hopping with one leg |
| ("leant yeg
lai"). Of course, I was "da man!" |
|
Around 8 am every morning, the trumpet would go off. The camp leader would order |
| us to get out of
bed. We would hurry brushed our teeth, combed our hair, and put on |
| our clothes.
Then we would march to meet the others on the open field and salute the |
| flag.
Following our camp leader (college student on summer job), we would all head to |
| the cafeteria and
eat cereal for breakfast. After, we would go for swim in the lake. |
| Swimming around
the wide buoy line was very tiring. Luckily, I already knew how to |
| swim from Laos.
In the morning, the water was cold, but I was warmed up after couple |
| of laps.
Throughout the day, my brother and I would just go around and sampled as |
| much activities
possible. As for lunch, we would go eat on our own. In the evening, |
| we would play
baseball against other teams from the various cabins. |
|
During the day, I was watching kids taking turn diving off the diving board. It was |
| quite high, too.
Curious, I swam out and climbed the ladder up to the diving board. |
| From a distance,
diving looked like a piece of cake. So, I leaped up and landed on the |
| edge. Then
I took to flight like a bird without feathers. This was my first diving attempt. |
| I arched my back
and down I went. When I hit the water, splat! Damn, the front of my |
| body was all red
from head to toe. I could barely swim back to the ladder because I was |
| all numb and
could not see straight (everything was a blur and saw stars). I guessed |
| that's what
happened without proper instructions. After that, I just stuck to cannon ball |
| drops. |
|
After two weeks, we saw our sponsors. We packed our stuffs and went home. We |
| stopped for ice
cream (yeah!). Amazingly, I could talk to them somewhat (no more |
| gobble, gobble).
Back home, my brother and I hung out a lot at our sponsor's house. |
| They had two boys
around our age and a girl that tried to kiss me way back when. We |
| played baseball,
soccer, and golf. One on one, they could never beat me in soccer. |
| Playing golf one
time, I hit a golf ball with all my might, and I heard the sound of a |
| window shattered.
I looked up and saw a hole through a neighbor's window. |
| Fortunately, they
went down south for vacation (old snow birds). We just looked at |
| each other and
ran home. The sponsor son and I never told anyone (shame on us). |
|
One day, I saw an old bike in my sponsor's garage. I had never ridden a bike before. |
| Yes, I took the
bike out and fell miserably. Finally, I was peddling down the drive way |
| and passed the
road in front of the house. I started screaming, "ah...!", and I rammed |
| the bike into the
fence and fell down on the dry ditch. Again, without proper |
| instructions, I
did not how to turn. Luckily, there was no car on the road. Once I learned |
| how to ride, I
went everywhere with the sponsor's sons and other friends. Another time, |
| we rode to a
bridge outside of town (a good long ride). Looking down, the river was |
| crystal clear,
and we could see the bottom. We parked our bikes. One by one, we |
| climbed on top of
the rail and jumped off. Free falling, our screams sounded like wild |
| animals.
Splashed, the water was totally cold and refreshing. Of course, we jumped |
| again and again
until we had enough. Exhausted, then we peddled home like forever. |
|
After four months, we were homesick and missed "pea nong Lao". We kept in
touch |
| with one family
in Bakersfield, California. My parents advised the sponsors that we |
| would like to
move to California to be closer to relatives and to learn English. One |
| sponsor drove us
in a mobile home. I really enjoyed the different scenery as we passed |
| through different
states. Once we got there, they gave us a hug and drove off. That was |
| very kind of
them. My parents enrolled in English classes. After learning enough, my |
| father worked in
the grape farm. With the church, my mother helped translate English for |
| the Laotian
family that could not speak any English. Then we started school. |
|
My kindergarten started at 5th grade. Luckily, I learned very quickly. From
here |
| through junior
high, my grades were decent, for I goofed off a lot. Once I entered high |
| school, I got
serious, for I told myself that I had to prepare for college. And I completed |
| 10th grade.
Then my father had not seen his sister since we came to America. His sister's |
| family was
residing in Provo, Utah. Next, we moved to Provo, Utah to be near relatives |
| again. My
father worked for the city with my uncle doing landscaping. My mother |
| worked as a
seamstress. |
|
In school, I excelled in mathematics. I took a computer programming course and fell |
| in love with the
challenge. So, I would spend a lot of time in the lab after school. When |
| summer came, I
worked as a custodian in an elementary school near my house. The |
| school was being
remodeled. In the morning, I would pull weeds along the flower beds |
| outside.
Usually, my nose would bleed due to the hot sun. About 10 am, I would go |
| helped out
inside. There were five custodians. With a sponge dipped into the soapy |
| water, then we
would scrub the chairs, tables, and desks if there were no tomorrows. |
| At noon, we would
break 30 minutes for lunch. I would be soaked with sweats. My hand |
| would shake on
its own due to fatigue. If there were any time available, we would shoot |
| some hoops (every
minute count). Most of the times, we had to move the stuffs around. |
| Especially, I
dreaded moving stuffs to the second floor and vice versa. I had to say that |
| cleaning the
bathroom was the worse. One word, shit! Absolutely, I would say |
| even "par
daak" smell better. When it was near the time to go home, I would be so happy. |
| I had to drag
myself home because I was so tired. When summer was over, my hand was |
| all messed up
(cracked lines) from the chemicals. |
|
Then in one summer job, I worked with my uncle and father for the city. Yes, |
| landscaping!
Our job was to keep the Provo city landscape beautiful. In the morning, |
| I would pull
weeds around the the never ending flower gardens around the court |
| building
downtown. I would be on my hands and knees. Every now and then, I would get |
| bit by the fire
ants (ouch!). To ease the heat somewhat, I had a hat, jean pant, tennis |
| shoes, and short
sleeve shirt. On the back of my neck and where the short sleeve shirt did |
| not cover, my
skin was dark from the burning sun rays. When I tried to stand up, my back |
| was killing me.
For break time, I would drop everything and ran inside the court building |
| to get a cold
coke. That would relieve my suffering under a shade for half an hour. In the
|
| afternoon, I
would rake the shrubs that were trimmed by other landscapers and loaded on |
| to the truck.
The ones with thorns could be painful at times (sticked my fingers). Then I |
| would be off
sweeping grasses left by the edger of the never ending sidewalks around |
| the court house.
Through the course of the day, my nose would bleed atleast once and |
| compounded by
headaches caused by the hot sun. And I'm sure that others must have |
| felt the same
hardships. Again, I was always looking forward to the breaks and time to go |
| home. At
those times, silently, I would jump for joy (took a brief moment to smile from |
| head to toe).
At the end of the day, my clothes would be soaked with sweats. |
| Interestingly, I
would never complain other than mentioned that I would love to jump in a |
| pool to cool off
in the hot sun. |
|
After finishing Provo, High School, my family decided to move to Jacksonville, Florida. |
| Initially, I took
odd jobs. I worked in a Chinese fast food place and lasted one day. It |
| was too hectic.
I had blisters for scooping food all day long and decided it was not |
| what I wanted to
do. Then at another Chinese restaurant, I was a hostess, seating |
| customers and
made sure that they were happy. After a month, I started a job at a |
| merchandise
store. I stocked hardware items. I dreaded stocking up 80 pound water |
| soluble salt bag,
for I could not get any help from a guy supervisor. Unfortunately, he |
| was on ego trip,
telling everyone what to do except helping out. At times, he would use |
| bad language if
things were not going his way. I dreaded going to work, for I did not |
| like the unfair
treatment. At times, I thought there has gotten to be a better way to make |
| a living and be
treated like a sensible human being. With government grant, I started |
| community college
working toward my Associate of Arts Degree. |
|
During my two year in community college, I was a math tutor for about two semesters. |
| Then after that,
I got a job in the computer lab, tutoring spreadsheet, word-processing, |
| dBase, and
Basic/Pascal programming. I would hear my name echoes near and far, for |
| I was sincere in
my tutoring approach and never made anyone feel uncomfortable. After |
| getting the
Associate of Arts Degree, then I transferred to University of North Florida |
| (UNF). At
the time, it was one of the top ten computer science programs offered in the |
| country. |
|
At UNF, I was on the co-op program where I had the opportunity to apply what I had |
| learned in class
to real world applications. In the Computer Science program, I studied |
| a lot of problem
solving approaches as it applied to computers. So, my course projects |
| were coding
compiler, interpreter, assembler, database, and the like. Mainly, I used |
| UNIX/C to
construct those other languages. It was tedious and time consuming process. |
| The projects
would usually take the whole semester to complete. Pretty much, I lived |
| in the library
and computer lab. With no social life, I studied Karate at UNF's Shotakan |
| Karate class.
That was how I kept sane, exercise! As time permitted, I would try to find |
| time to go
jogging (got to keep the heart working). Working my way through school, time |
| was a premium.
Frankly, the less time I had, the more precious time became! Closed to |
| testing time and
end of projects, I would stay up all night. With lack of sleep, sometimes |
| my body would
shut down on its own. I came near couple of accidents this way. Hey, it's |
| not my time, so
I'm still here. Over the long haul, I finally got a Bachelor of Science degree |
| in Computer
Science and a Math minor. |
|
With an experience and a degree in hand, I was offered a job in Tampa. I helped |
| supported a
client/server application that did paper work for a workers' compensation |
| companies.
About two years, then I moved on to work for a workers' compensation |
| company in
Sarasota. About three years later, I went to work for a contact lens |
| manufacture in
Sarasota. About two years later, I came back to Jacksonville and worked |
| in a company that
is in the call center business. My contract lasted six months. Now I'm |
| currently working
for a bank. Through all these career moves, I have gotten the |
| opportunities to
excel at different areas and acquired different skills and techniques |
| from the
different companies: database design, client/server software life-cycle, and many |
| more. |
|
In summary, I have mature and could see things at much deeper levels because of |
| the hardships
that I have gone through. I have tried not to take anything for granted, |
| and I always hope
that I have gained the wisdom to see the truths in every aspects of my |
| life. In my
journey, I have realized that anything worthwhile requires hard work, |
| dedication,
persistency, patience, and never lose sight of my dream in spite how rough the |
| road may
appear. To reach my dream no matter how subtle or grand, I need to chart a |
| course and walk
the journey. Along the path, I will make many discoveries. By |
| overcoming
obstacles, I will be able to discern between a dream and reality. Ultimately, |
| the goal is to
stay true to myself and be realistic. Sometimes half way down the journey, I |
| may realize that
this is the journey that I don't want, then I will chart a new course. |
| However, I would
not have realized the truth if I had not taken the journey. Most |
| importantly, I
first must help myself before I can help others. |
| |
|
Haak Pang Pea Nong Lao Tuk Kon! |
