Moving & Family

I grew up in many places when I was young. I was constantly moving not understanding why my parents had to move so much. I also never truly questioned my parents for the reasons they moved. I just accepted that I had to leave the place I was living at and hopefully move on to bigger and better things. Now that I think about the reasons I moved, I wonder if it was because of lack of financial stability, trying to be closer to other family member, congregating to other Vietnamese communities, or just to find a better life.

The thing about moving was that I often saw the differences between the places I moved to. I still remember being in a cramped apartment with my parents trying to fit a family of five into a one bedroom place. To me, when I think about life back then, I truly don’t think it was that bad. I didn’t mind not having my own room like I do now. I just accepted that this is how life was supposed to be. I found comfort in the fact of how close my family was to me in the small apartment. I enjoyed life even though my parents were working constantly back then. When I think about life now, my parents still seem to be constantly working. Even though our living situation has improved, it seems that we are still saving our money to be financially stable. It also seems that I cherish the moments with my parents more in a sense. They had to do less stuff with the apartment compared to the house now. We had less chores and more time be with family. Now I feel like there is always something to do in fixing our own house. It seems that having a bigger place makes us spend a lot more time on the house than with each other.

When I think about time with family, I seem to take it for granted. I truly love my family. They matter the most to me and yet it seems that I spend very little time with them. My life right now is filled with school, friends and events. I always have places to be and things to do. It seems that I often use school as an excuse for everything. I have to agree I am paying a lot of money for education and since I am paying a lot of money for school, I should do well in school. The hard part of school is staying focused on the material you are learning because school is not the only thing in your life. There are so many things in the world and events happening that it is hard to concentrate. It seems that a person usually compensates the time in school with the fun events that happen around them. With these events, you find friends and find a place to socialize. It also takes to time for friendship to develop and become deep. It seems that you have to work at staying close to people since that is the definition of friendship. With all this time spent outside of family, I often wonder when there is the time to spend it with family.

When I think about it, I really enjoy the time my family spends together. Even though my mind does wonder to other future events that I will be spending with my friends, I realize that it is nice having my family there to be with me. There is this special bond with my family that I will never have with other people. I know that my family will always be there no matter what I do. It seems that in a sense, my goals are truly to satisfy my family. Even with all the crazy antics of life, my family is the most important aspect to my life.