- Thank you for always supporting me throughout the years, and working hard to provide for our family. From dusk to dawn you worked to support us, sewing clothes from 7AM in the morning to midnight every night [basically a sweatshop worker], only taking breaks for meals throughout the day.
- Thank you for being a provider for me even when I was being a spoiled brat and deeply unreasonable. I remember you re-cooking eggs for me and delivering it to my room whenever I didn’t want to eat whatever was being served for dinner, running to my room and slamming the door in rage.
- I’ll always appreciate the lessons you taught me in frugality. Though I’m not nearly as cheap as you, I am always cognizant of my spending habits, and that is a skill I will take with me wherever I go. Save a penny here, save a dollar there. It all adds up in the end, and I have to strive to balance spending on what is important to me in life.
- I like that you forced me to learn some Vietnamese. Even though I’m still not that good at it, I would definitely be more useless if I did not practice a bit growing up. I’m hopeful I can teach my kids some Vietnamese, and maybe we’ll learn more together in the process.
- It’s hard starting a new life in a new country, but I’m glad you took the voyage from Vietnam to America. Though it was not easy, it was done for the good of the family and the good of our futures, and for that I’ll always eternally be grateful.
- For instilling the value of hard work in all of us. Though you never used positive words of affirmation [it is simply not your love language]. As an Asian family, “I love yous” were never given. And yet you gave me plenty of love through the hard work and the due diligence you put in place in supporting our entire family. We have all been successful because of it. And we continue to use hard work as our love languages for our current and future families because of it. I continue to use “hard work” as an avenue for supporting my students, and refuse to publicly acknowledge my care for them.
- Patience is a virtue. Though Mom had more patience than Dad, you both exercised restraint in many ways, supporting us and making proper decisions for us in life. Like Ariel’s father in the Little Mermaid, you truly wanted the best for us, even if we didn’t see eye to eye on what that looked like.
- The values you taught us will be forever instilled in our future children. Frugality, hard work, due diligence, persistence, kindness, and support. The true tenants of family support, and the key recipe to creating successful and happy adults.
- The importance of voting and exercising our democratic rights as citizens in the United States. That citizenship test is not easy, especially for those that barely know any English – and yet you did it, instilling in us the right to vote. Not sure how Mom passed that test. I continue to exercise that right to vote every year. And though we don’t always see eye to eye on politics (the election was not stolen!) I’m grateful for the opportunity to engage in the democratic process in the United States because of you.
- The small moments of joy throughout the years. A fruit cake for me every year for my birthday. A bag of hot Cheetos every week as an allowance. Not going on vacations, but taking me to random places that we could afford. Like the library to read books. Nha Hang 1.99 which was actually that price back in the day. In the end, I can only hope to return the favor by taking you on many mini-adventures in the future.
