Shadowlands

Language is one of the most important things for anyone, and also one of the hardest. That’s what I came up with after along time fighting with it. Before I came to Petra, I had already been trying to pronounce like an American. I kept listen to what they said then try to say exactly the same way. After a period of time, I got better, and I supposed my speaking skill was closer to American than any other Vietnamese I had ever met. Then I came to the US, to Petra. Not many people could understand what I said, and I had to face the fact that my voice was really different than what I heard from myself. Despite the previous useless effort, I got to do things over again. The extremely intense year in Petra did improve my English, not only my speaking but also my writing and listening skills faster than I could ever get. And so, I came back to Vietnam in joy and gladness. However, when we stop we are left behind. The following months in college were busy, yet in different wa...

So it is it. That guy broke up with you, didn’t he? “I’ll be fine. Don’t worry.” You said. The predicted thing comes at last. The guy who got you is now gone. But love can’t ever be transferred from one person to another like a shirt, and the sadness of jealousy can’t ever be removed by someone else’s unhappiness. I didn’t feel any better when I knew your story. I instead felt so sorry, so sad for you. That love was a really sweet one, though it wasn’t mine. He was a sweet guy, a good man and a caring mate. He laughed a lot, and it made your beautifully sad face turn out to be happier. And he cared for you, kept giving you surprises and even shouted your name out loud in the rain. How sweet, how romantic he was! For the whole time, I was hurt, really hurt. But I was thankful also. He was there with you when I wasn’t. He did the things that I could not. So now he is gone. Why he did that, I have no clue. Your story doesn’t have me in it, and it won’t, ever. You are not RainY anymore, ...

Make yourself an ark of gopher wood. Make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch. – Genesis 6:14 (ESV) Since I have been reading books, mangas, and watching movies a lot these days, my worldview did increase and get changed dramatically. The annoying thing was: because of that, the Truth became confusing and my Faith came out to be faded a bit. The more I thought about it, the more amazing it was- that I watched the movie “Evan Almighty”. The movie was about a man named Evan Baxter. In the night he became a new congress man, he prayed to God, that He would help him to “change the world”. The surprising thing was that God did come to him, and told him to build “an ark”. To follow God’s Word, Evan had to give up his politic career and many things else… It was just a funny movie, but there shouldn’t be a lot of Christian movies may surpass it. I was stunned with all the ideas conveyed in it. I admire Evan so much. He decided to pray God in the first place...

Last week was a really hard time for me. It was the only time I had left, before the next semester gets started, which means, it was the only chance for me to prepare for my popping performance. It was pretty much clueless, since I gave up my previous music, and had to make up a brand new one. And I had to make a whole choreography also, despite the fact that I just started my popping career last summer. Anyway, it invaded continuously my reading and writing time, which is inconsiderable. So I decided to fix it, by writing something about my trip to Montana last Christmas. Well, as Mama Sukut said, I could only bring “a bag” to Bozeman, so the trip seemed not really fun for me in the beginning. But it was really good to see Mama Sukut and Paige again. The van was full of stuff for sure, but I still could – somehow – get in it, and the trip began. The trip was long for sure, since we came from Missouri to Montana. (It means we had to go through about five other s...

Từ khi mới sinh ra, không biết bao nhiêu lần người ta rót vào tai nhau: “Chúng ta thật tự hào là người Việt Nam !” “Yeah, chúng ta là người Việt Nam , yeah!” “Yeah! Tự hào! Yeah!”… Thế là bản thân cũng phải có lúc tự hỏi mình: tại sao lại tự hào vậy? Tôi không tự hào mình là “con rồng” hay “cháu tiên” rồi. Tôi hẳn nhiên là con người. Vậy thì vì cái gì nhỉ? Vì sự thông minh ư? Điều này nghe rất có lý. Bao nhiêu người Việt Nam xa xưa nghĩ ra rất nhiều kế rất hay. Những “Trạng Lường” Lương Thế Vinh, những Trần Hưng Đạo hay Cao Thắng, Trần Đại Nghĩa thì quả thật không thể không nể trọng. Và ngày nay, bao nhiêu du học sinh Việt Nam du học đã đạt thành tích cao, đứng đầu lớp và đầu khối. (Về điều này thì tôi không hề nói tốt gì về mình. Tôi luôn thua kém xa các bạn Việt Nam xung quanh về thành tích.) Vậy là người Việt Nam thông minh sao? Đúng. Nhưng đó có phải là điều để chúng ta tự hào không? Tôi luôn tin rằng sự thông minh phải đi kèm với sự khôn ngoan thì mới đáng tự hào được. Sự th...