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Soon We'll Be Apart: Thai Nguyen, 1966-1968 Revised and Supplemented in Ho Chi Minh City, 2013-2014

The document reflects on the author's emotions as they prepare to leave their homeland for university in August 1966. It captures a deep sense of nostalgia and gratitude for the places and people that shaped their childhood, including family, friends, and the landscape. The author acknowledges the support they received despite their physical disability, which enabled them to pursue education and independence.

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2 views1 page

Soon We'll Be Apart: Thai Nguyen, 1966-1968 Revised and Supplemented in Ho Chi Minh City, 2013-2014

The document reflects on the author's emotions as they prepare to leave their homeland for university in August 1966. It captures a deep sense of nostalgia and gratitude for the places and people that shaped their childhood, including family, friends, and the landscape. The author acknowledges the support they received despite their physical disability, which enabled them to pursue education and independence.

Uploaded by

baovylenguyen7
Copyright
© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

39

Soon we’ll be apart


But before any of those plans could take shape, on August 9, 1966, I received the admission notice from
the University of General Studies. In just a few days, I would be leaving to attend university in a distant
evacuation area. I was filled with joy, yet also overwhelmed by a sense of wistfulness, anxiety, nervous
excitement, and regret.

So now I was about to leave my beloved homeland. Soon I would be leaving behind the vast fields that at
times stretched endlessly in green carpets, and at others blazed like golden seas dotted with poetic white
wings of storks. Soon I would be leaving the familiar village road. Soon I would be leaving the bamboo
hedges, the almond trees, the rows of casuarina trees that gently and joyfully spread their arms to shade
the path I walked to school each day. Soon I would be leaving the small pond where my friends and I
splashed about learning to swim beneath the lush green shade of two jackfruit trees and the village’s
largest ancient tea tree. Soon I would be leaving the stone slab near the pond bridge, where I used to sit
fishing, gazing at the stars in the high sky and at their reflections shimmering endlessly in the water
below, where sudden poetic inspirations often came to me.

Soon I would be leaving the humble thatched-roof house where I first cried at birth. A place that
witnessed the unhappy moments of my childhood. A place where dreams and hopes quietly took root and
sprouted green leaves in my soul. A place that still bears the scars of French colonial crimes, etched
deeply into the main roof beam with jagged gashes left by artillery shrapnel. A place where, many times,
soldiers stayed during their missions and kindly taught my childhood self so many valuable lessons.
Soon I would be leaving the people dearest to me: my parents, my maternal grandfather, my uncles and
aunts, my older siblings, and my young nieces and nephews. How many times they had cried because of
me, and how many times they had smiled with joy and pride because of me. Soon I would be leaving my
warm-hearted, simple, and good-natured neighbors. Soon I would be leaving my beloved teachers and
close friends: Ms. Cương, Mr. Châu, Mr. Chử… Bằng, Tam, Phụ, Liễu, Bích, Nghiệp… and so many,
many other noble hearts.

Each person was different, each held a unique memory, yet all came to me with boundless love, care, and
concern. Without them, without independence and freedom, how could a physically disabled boy like me
ever have been able to go to school, to grow up, and now to be on the verge of sitting in a university
lecture hall?

Thai Nguyen, 1966–1968


Revised and supplemented in Ho Chi Minh City, 2013–2014
Note: At that time, universities in Northern Vietnam admitted students through selection rather than
entrance examinations, unlike today.

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