Essay #1

Migration to The United States: A Hard Decision to Be Made

My brother migrated to the United States as a refugee in 1985. Five years later, after being a US citizen, he tendered to the US government the application to sponsor us – our parents and other five brothers and sisters (including me) to join him in America. In 2008, all of us were granted by the US government “green cards” with which we could live in the United States as permanent residents. I was reluctant to leave Vietnam at that time because my life was stable with an extremely good job which offered me not only a good salary but also a good team including my generous, open minded boss and cheerful, cooperative colleagues. Furthermore, my life in Vietnam by that time was enjoyable with a large circle of good friends who stood up for me in my absence and offered me excellent company in time of need. However, if I stayed in Vietnam, I got no family around me. Of course I still had cousins living nearby but those cousins could not replace my siblings. To reach the final decision of moving to the United States or not, I had to figure out many advantages and disadvantages that might come up to my life if I made a positive choice. I believed that by observing clearly those facts, I could make a good decision.

I started my “homework” with the overview of the outstanding advantage. That was the opportunity to enjoy a good environment with more green trees and less air pollution. Such green and clean environment could help me overcome the asthma disease that I have been suffering since the day I was born.

Besides that advantage, there were other two remarkable disadvantages that I needed to take into account. First of all, I might be terribly frustrated when starting a new life at the age of 44, – the age when people tend to stick to old habits and reject new things. Furthermore, I might face a financial threat because there was no guarantee that I would have an income right after migrating to the United States.

I kept on going through the above facts and in March 2009, I decided to migrate to the United States. I believed that I could overcome all disadvantages with the support of relatives and friends who migrated there more than 20 years ago. Indeed, the result of my decision turned out to be good. Now, after one year and a half , I have started to enjoy the new life because it is filled with impressive things and is getting stable with a humble income.

The impressive things which fill my life can be perceived daily through my five senses. I enjoy looking at the environment which appears much greener than in Vietnam. This green environment has a very good effect on my health. I also enjoy tasting the new style of American-Vietnamese food. Due to the different sources of ingredients, either imported from Thailand or planted in America, it tastes slightly different, but quite interesting, and I have no objection to it. I also have a special notice of the lack of bad smell in this new environment. When at home, I was so used to the bad smell from garbage and sewage that I was struck by its absence! And I was delighted by my first contact with the good fresh air here. In addition, I take special interest in listening to the Vietnamese dialect here. Vietnamese people in America mix a lot of English words in their conversation in Vietnamese. Last but not least, I am so happy when experiencing having the “touch” the freedom that communist countries like Vietnam can never offer. Freedom here is obvious: I just need to open my eyes and ears and I will see and hear how freely people express their opinions.

My new life here is also free from financial worries. Thanks to my cousin’s reference, I get a small salary from a part time job at the office of a Vietnamese pediatrician. I also get a small amount from the financial aid granted by the US government to low-income full-time student like me. The total is enough to pay for the shelter that I shared with my brother and his family and other basic expenses like food, drink, gasoline, school materials. I still have some dollars left for simple entertainment activities like going to the movies or buying a cup of cappuccino in the mall nearby.

In conclusion, in the recent past, by using the method of observing the pros and cons of a situation, I found a good answer to the difficult issue of whether or not to migrate to the United States. Also thanks to that method, I was so well prepared that I could turn the hardest part of my life to the most enjoyable one. In the future, whenever I need to decide anything, I will apply the same method to get the right choice as well as to have a good preparation. This good preparation will help me to deal with any new circumstances that may come along. In fact, a new challenging matter just came up to me yesterday: whether to move in with my boyfriend in Holland. I will certainly be much more confident in dealing with it this time.