Twenty Summers
For the first 10 years of my life, grandpa practically raised me.
“Hai bảy tháng bảy thương binh Hai tám tháng bảy bé Linh ra đời” — ông nội –
Translation: “ July 27 is the veteran day; July 28 is Linh’s birthday” by grandfather. For the record, it rhymes in Vietnamese.
Today marks the 20th summer of my life. I never really liked summer as much as I love winter, despite being born in summertime. I hate not being able to celebrate birthday in class, or get a surprised birthday party in my boarding school like my winter-born friends. I hate the unbearable heat, the sweating, and the frustration from summer air. Perhaps people are destined to hate what they are born with? (ghét của nào trời trao của ấy mà :P) But think about it, my happier moments always fall into this hottest time of the year. Summer is scorching yet cheerful and fulfilling, unlike the beautiful but sobering, lonely winter days. Summer is the only time I have in these recent years to go home again and slow down my hurriedly-paced life. Summer is the chance to refresh my self and get ready for another journey ahead. So yes, after 20 years, I can say that I also love summer, after all :)
Looking back, during my 20 summers, I have:
Got heavily drunk once, and realized that it was a total black-out (i.e, I couldn’t remember anything) the next hang-over day
Studied abroad in two different countries
Been able to play three different instruments
Known four different languages
Fallen in love , truly, deeply, madly
Been broken-hearted
Eaten 7 kgs of dragon-fruit in 5 days
Made friends with people of ~ 80 different nationalities
Lost 9 kgs after a month
Been to 10 different countries, and a lot of cities
Got busted while naked
Got hit in the pupil of the eye
At the age of 13, finally figured out that infants do not come from the mother’s underarms
Got a hand-shake from a monkey (and got scared to death), when 14 months-old
Danced like a fool on the street, for 15 minutes
Seen both Solar Eclipse and Lunar Eclipse
Spent a week of sleeplessness to make a birthday gift
Parachuted
Skyped for 19 hours straight
Done a proper research and written a 20-page paper
Learned to rollerblade
Made a book
Got broadcasted nationally
Fainted to the point of unconsciousness in the bathroom
Been in an acrobatic jet-plane
Earned money on my own
Seen my bone, like the part underneath skin and blood
Kissed in public, like, in the main Gateway of an airport
Seen deaths, sudden ones
Known a lot of U30 Doctors, or soon-to-be Doctors (tiến sĩ í @_@)
Spent all of the money I had to travel cross-continentally to visit someone
Memorized an anthem different than my own country’s
Carried 60 kgs of luggage on my own
Eaten the whole meal by bare hands, including soups
Dedicated a song for someone in front of a huge audience
Slept under zillion stars
Gone scuba diving
Forgiven without forgetting
Studied in an (almost) all-girl class (39 girls and 1 boy)
Single-handedly taught a 2-hour-long class of 40 kiddos
Known how to drive car, bicycle, and motorcycle
Screamed out-loud on top of a convertible while rolling on a highway, in front of people’s whatthehellyouthinkyouaredoing stare
Managed to crash, sit on, or lose ALL of the pairs of glasses that I have ever possessed –> Reason why I don’t wear glasses any more =))
Got acquainted with a celebrity
Got my name drawn on snow, in a huge football field
Survived a day without eating, more than once!
Ignored a secret admirer for 7 years
Had a opposite-sex best friend
Met someone who was born on the same day, same month, same year, and almost same time; and who was also my first ever roommate that the school randomly assigned for me.
(cliché alert) Lived in 3 decades, 2 millenniums, 2 centuries before turning twenty
So yes, I have the right to be proud of my twenty, don’t I? Welcome to the 20 club, Linh!
