I never knew how lucky I was to grow up in America, without having to go through all of the adversity, hatred, and embarrassment of being an immigrant from Vietnam. My parents have felt every possible emotion, whether it was disdain, feeling hopeless, and having fear. I'm very sure that there are Asian-American immigrants who always looked for the “American Dream” and tried to find a better life for their family.

I'm a Vietnamese-American who has not gone through the immigrant process, and yet there are still many hardships that I face today, as a kid, as a Asian kid. When I was young, I was thrown into the black stormy hurricane of racism and hatred by many Americans just because of the color of my skin. Lots of people went up to me assuming I was Chinese, saying “Ching Chong” or giving an Asian accent to act like I couldnt understand normal English. It hurt as a kid, because I was taken abruptly by the worst side of people. I always assumed everyone was so nice and caring but that was all taken away from me. I saw the real world now, is America really that “American Dream?”

My parents told me to always ignore it, and always focus on me, and my success which I’ve always tried to do. My parents raised me to become the amazing young man I am today, and I'm so thankful for how they raised me. They always told me to say nothing, and prove with my actions, which is what I did. They told me while I was seven or eight years old to always expect to be hated for my race, always expect people to say “you're not supposed to be here.” Because some people are just like that. But they also told me, not everyone is like that. There are very nice people that I would meet that would stand up for who I am, and accept me for who I was born as. This allowed me to overcome the obstacle of racism and hatred. My parents talk about how to expect things from people and moved me to the goal of helping others, and changing people's thoughts if they had wrong ones. People can change overtime, and I hope that America can change too.

It might take a while for me to reach the goal, but I always hope to focus on the main point, and help other people not only in my neighborhood, but the people around my city, my state, and my country, and teach them why it's okay to accept everyone for who they are, and to help others when in need. I hope that people will see to look into people for who they are, and not for the skin color they have, or the stereotypes, the hatred, and the past that each race has had in the long run. I hope America is ready for that conversation?