A Cambodian girl who is studying at the states, yet taking a Japanese class and enjoy eating Korean food. It’s like a mix of things, and some people might be very surprise to hear so. When my American friends asked me which courses I was taking, I always replied, “one of the courses is Japanese language.” I usually got the same questions from everyone I first met. One of them got surprised to hear my answer, and she was like, “you come a long way to America to study Japanese, sweetie?” It is a bit funny to me as well, but I find it enjoyable. As an Asian, I always want to learn another Asian language, and it is my dream to travel around Asia, Europe and other parts of the world. But Asian countries are the first destination to visit and explore after my journey in the states finish, and of course Japan is my most favourable countries to visit among several countries including Korea, Singapore and Hong Kong. This is one of the main reasons I am taking Japanese. Living in the states, it is undeniable that the taste of food is totally different from Cambodian food. Luckily, a dining hall at my college serves Korean food every Tuesday evening, so I can enjoy my favourite taste of food. Though, it does not taste exactly the same as Cambodian food that I always want to eat while I am away from home, I might say Korean food somehow have similar taste. Plus, no joke it’s one of my favourite dishes. Doing mix things at the same time seems weird, but it makes me more comfortable when I am out of my comfort zone and surrounded by many new friends in a very different country with different weather and culture.
I’m proud to be my parents’ daughter!
I am inspired a lot by my mother, who is the oldest daughter among eight siblings in a family. Because of family burden and financial problem in the family, she needed to quit her study at grade five to be responsible for all housework. Then she got married to my father, who is the oldest son in a farmer family. He did farming and went fishing to earn money to support his study till he became a high school teacher. After getting married, they lived in a cottage where my mother started running a very small business. They were struggling very hard in order to higher our standard of living. They worked from morning till 11 or 12 o’clock at night, regardless of how tired they were.
Five years had passed miserably; they could at least earn enough money to support their daily life. Therefore, they decided to give birth to me. Even though I was born in a poor family, I was so lucky and happy with my parents living in our cottage. They raised me with full care and attention. No matter how tired and busy they were, they always spared their time from working to teach me. Although my mother does not have a high education, at least she could know how to read and write, and could teach me for the first grade. Five years later, I was sent to school and my younger sister was born. Our family’s condition was better, so we could move to live in a bigger house and expanded our business somehow bigger than in the past.
I am so proud of my parents that challenged every obstacle in their life and raised all children very well aimed for ease of living. With inspiration and encouragement from them, I have grown up full of commitment, enjoyment and ambition. I always have a dream to be a well-educated and well-rounded woman who can earn high salary to pay my parents back for what they sacrificed for me for their whole life. Moreover, I have a strong desire to help other people who live in more miserable conditions than I do. I experienced living in such hard conditions, so I truly know this taste of life. There are many people who live in rural areas are still struggling with their lives more severely than I was because they cannot even go to school. I somehow consider I am luckier than many people, especially the disabled and orphans, who live miserably without care and attention from most people in society.
Inspirational Blog 