Commentary : A Girl’s Tale of Tyranny, Freedom

The following is one of the essays submitted by students to The Times Centennial Time Capsule Essay Contest. It was written by Tuyet Tran, a fifth-grader at Jackson School in Santa Ana. Tuyet has only had about three years of English instruction. Her essay appears unedited in its original form.

Hi my name is Tuyet Tran, I’m Vietnamme girl. I’m 11 years old. Andrew Jackson is my school. I was in 5th grade. I have a nice family and they are very nice. I have two sisters and five brothers. All of us were born in Vietnam. All of my brothers are very strong and tall, but my sisters, are not. My parents love me, my sisters and My brothers very much. We try to make them happy.

I remember when I was in Vietnam and I was little, my family and my aunt were poor, but all of my cousins were very rich. My parents let me live with my aunt because no one lived with her. In my country all of the people don’t have freedom because my country was in war, and so we lost it. The people who took over my country are commists. A lot of Vietnamese people fled away from them and go to other country by boat when they have freedom and live there.

My family plant rice and when it ripe, we have to gave rice to the communists and they gave us not very much rice and we don’t have enough food to eat. My family can’t stand any more so my family and my cousin made a plan to go. My aunt didn’t want to go because she was born there and I have to leave her there.

At night my family and my cousin went across the dangerous bridge but only me didn’t want to cross the bridge and the bridge made me scare. The river under the bridge had glass and can, the tree had needles on it and some other things too. My parents told me to come over so I listened to them. At last I made it so we went into the forest and walked until we saw the river and my cousin came and we climbed on the boat he took us to the ship.

On the ship I saw a lot of people, we climbed on the ship and rolled away. All the people on the ship saw some kind of big fish. On the way we don’t have any trouble because God helped us. We were on the ship for two days and three nights. On the ship I couldn’t eat food and I felt sick. Almost dark, we saw the Island and got on the land. All the people went out of the ship and we saw some natives. They were kind to us and gave us food and found us a house.

One month Later they sent us to Island and so they took us to America. When I came to America, I saw so many cars and buildings and horeses. They look beautiful. I saw my sister and my brother because my parents let them go to America first. My sisters look prettier they when they were in Vietnam. I saw a lot of things I alway want. There were many factories. I saw clothes, shoes and it look pretty.

I never saw America people before but now I do. America people look pretty. I saw some different kinds of people and they talk in Engish but I don’t understand what they say. My sister told my family to get into the car and took us home. When I got home I saw that house was big. In Vietnam my neighbor had one T.V. and it’s not good and it don’t have many chanel. That day my sister had party to welcome us, I saw my cousin come to my house. Sometimes my sister took me to my aunt house to play. Now I have fun with my cousin like in Vietnam. I love my aunt and my friends very much because they are very nice to me.

One month later my sister took me to school and then I meet two of my best friends named Linh and Thu Le. They were very nice to me. I meet them from second grade to fifth grade and we have fun together in all those years. We have nice teachers named Mrs. Sherrill, Ms. Sibial and Mrs. Mehrtens and they taught us a lot of things and are nice to us. We like them very much and thanks to them we can speak English. They are the best teachers we have ever had. My school is big and has many rooms. There are a lot of games at the playground. My school has a nice principal named Dr. Roelen. She likes the children very much and cares for them. She keep my school tidy. Sometimes, she told a joke to make the children laught. All the children like her because she is very nice.

My favorite hobby is American music because I understand the voices of the songs. In America my family are not rich and not poor and we also have freedom. We always thank America to let us live here and we also thank God because he help my family get away from trouble and let us find a way to America. Every Saturday and Sunday my family went to the church to pray. Here I have never gone somewhere far away before because no one took me but someday I will go to Disneyland, Hollywood and Disneyworld. I always wanted to visit that place.

I like to live in this Orange County because it helps my family a lot of things like we don’t have any money, so they gave us some. They gave us medical and when we are sick we can use medical to buy med. Thank you for helping me all that things Orange County and God will bless you.