The Bonds that Run Centuries Deep Emily Luong ‘20
I don’t remember the details of my escape from Saigon. But I do remember the motorboat my aunt, uncle, cousin, and I squeezed into. I remember the engine sputtering out in the middle of the South China Sea. I remember a hunger so consuming that I nearly forgot who I was and why I’d left in the ÀUVW SODFH , UHPHPEHU ZH VKRXOG¡YH GLHG , ZDV QLQH \HDUV ROG The world wouldn’t have lost much. It wouldn’t have so much as blinked an eye for war refugees with nothing to WKHLU QDPHV $ 8 6 1DY\ VKLS VSRWWHG XV à RDWLQJ LQ WKH RFHDQ and took us to a camp in the Philippines. We were allowed to see another day. Then we were on our way to America. The land of the free and the home of the brave, they said. I endured sleepless nights learning English, studying hard to get a degree, working multiple jobs to save up for a house, picking up the pieces of a shattered heart. But I’d do it again and again, for her, for Ellie. Because while the world wouldn’t have lost much that day, it wouldn’t have met that bright little spark. It wouldn’t have met the future. ~ The supermarket on Sunday morning is more hectic WKDQ WKH PDOO RQ %ODFN )ULGD\ 5XVW\ VKRSSLQJ FDUWV ÀOOHG ZLWK groceries are abandoned in any free space available. Shoppers scramble over one another to sink their hands into weathered ZRRGHQ FRQWDLQHUV ÀOOHG ZLWK JLQJHU %LWV RI PHDW DQG ERQH VSODWWHU RYHU FULPVRQ VWDLQHG DSURQV DV EXWFKHUV IXOÀOO WKH UHTXHVWV RI VKRSSHUV ÀJKWLQJ IRU VSRWV LQ IURQW RI VPXGJHG JODVV FDVHV 7KH EX]] RI PDQ\ VSRNHQ GLDOHFWV ÀOOV WKH PDUNHW ÀOOV P\ HDUV ZLWK D FRPIRUWLQJ ZKLWH QRLVH It’s with my daughter in this beautiful chaos where I ÀQG P\VHOI DW SHDFH 45
