Discuss how your family’s experience or cultural history enriched you or presented you with opportunities or challenges in pursuing your educational goals.
The Vietnam War ended in 1975 to the power of Ho Chi Minh and his Viet Minh communist party in North Vietnam. Fifteen years later, my grandparents and parents fled the country to settle down in America. My parents came to America with nothing but the hopes that they will make a better life for themselves. Knowing that, it was a given that they were going to be unfamiliar with the American culture and language. This was a factor that made me different from all my American raised friends. Growing up, my parents taught my siblings and I the Vietnamese language, traditions, and manners. My parents were able to teach me anything about my culture.
One lesson taught us that long ago, the Vietnamese people always valued education because it defined your rank in society. That education is the key to success. That it opens doors for people of all backgrounds and it expands the human mind with knowledge. It prepares individuals to solve problems, teach others, function at a higher level, and implement transformational ideas. Without education, ones chances for securing a career and ascending to a higher economic and social status are limited. So that being said, my parents were always strict that it made me fear them since I was little. It was not fear where I was terrified, but where I loved and respected them so much that meeting their expectations was important. I knew that everything was from love because they wanted the best for me so that I won't have to go through the struggles they had faced growing up.
I did my best in all my classes, participated in student council, and received recognition certificates to prove myself. In elementary, my parents bought me those practice books that were a level higher so that I wasn't the student who fell behind. They made sure I applied myself to the lessons by ripping out all the answer pages in the back or stapling them crazy shut so that it wasn't possible to even peek. My aptitude for learning was a lot higher than most of my peers because of all those extra workbook practices. Despite my parents efforts for my readiness, it had both a pro and con effect on me. I lacked motivation because many things were not brought as a strenuous challenge to me and if otherwise then I didn't bother applying myself to it, accepted the fact that I wasn't good at it, and received the acceptable score instead.
Now that I am in my second year of high school, my parents have been bringing up college and what plans I have for myself. I had no idea how to reply. I began to think about my future. I reflected on who I am, what I valued, my skills, and what my interests were. I fantasized about what a successful life would be like, returned to reality, then created goals that'll direct me toward the near future. I had to change my perspective of dealing with difficult challenges in order to proceed my roadmap.
Its a struggle to change myself, but its for the better. I take on challenges welcomely and stay determined where I don't back down till what I want is fulfilled.
I made it a must to continue my education after high school. To further my knowledge so that the chances of securing a promising career broadens. I believe that a college education will be the gateway to me fulfilling my career pathway so that I am able to provide my family's wants and needs and to simply make them proud. My family's experience and cultural history has made me the person I am today with opportunities such as the ability to use the power of knowledge to direct myself to success. I am grateful for parents sacrifice all so that their children deserve nothing less than the best knowledge and values.
One lesson taught us that long ago, the Vietnamese people always valued education because it defined your rank in society. That education is the key to success. That it opens doors for people of all backgrounds and it expands the human mind with knowledge. It prepares individuals to solve problems, teach others, function at a higher level, and implement transformational ideas. Without education, ones chances for securing a career and ascending to a higher economic and social status are limited. So that being said, my parents were always strict that it made me fear them since I was little. It was not fear where I was terrified, but where I loved and respected them so much that meeting their expectations was important. I knew that everything was from love because they wanted the best for me so that I won't have to go through the struggles they had faced growing up.
I did my best in all my classes, participated in student council, and received recognition certificates to prove myself. In elementary, my parents bought me those practice books that were a level higher so that I wasn't the student who fell behind. They made sure I applied myself to the lessons by ripping out all the answer pages in the back or stapling them crazy shut so that it wasn't possible to even peek. My aptitude for learning was a lot higher than most of my peers because of all those extra workbook practices. Despite my parents efforts for my readiness, it had both a pro and con effect on me. I lacked motivation because many things were not brought as a strenuous challenge to me and if otherwise then I didn't bother applying myself to it, accepted the fact that I wasn't good at it, and received the acceptable score instead.
Now that I am in my second year of high school, my parents have been bringing up college and what plans I have for myself. I had no idea how to reply. I began to think about my future. I reflected on who I am, what I valued, my skills, and what my interests were. I fantasized about what a successful life would be like, returned to reality, then created goals that'll direct me toward the near future. I had to change my perspective of dealing with difficult challenges in order to proceed my roadmap.
Its a struggle to change myself, but its for the better. I take on challenges welcomely and stay determined where I don't back down till what I want is fulfilled.
I made it a must to continue my education after high school. To further my knowledge so that the chances of securing a promising career broadens. I believe that a college education will be the gateway to me fulfilling my career pathway so that I am able to provide my family's wants and needs and to simply make them proud. My family's experience and cultural history has made me the person I am today with opportunities such as the ability to use the power of knowledge to direct myself to success. I am grateful for parents sacrifice all so that their children deserve nothing less than the best knowledge and values.
