Lylan has been diligently volunteering for several years now at a Vietnamese Buddhist temple – the same one I used to go to as a kid, where they made me do terrible pushups whenever other kids (not me of course) didn’t follow directions. It was kind of like Sunday school, where we meditated, learned Vietnamese, learned some Buddhism, and sang some Vietnamese songs.
Even though she herself didn’t like going to temple as a kid, she now recognizes the importance of it, and actually likes all the planning elements involved. Although, they don’t even pray in the temple now because there are 200 kids, so they do a mock prayer at Gilbert Elementary. Most of the Buddhist lessons have been a little watered down and are taught in English now, to appeal to probably the language barriers that is increasingly growing in the Vietnamese-American community. I do remember the food being pretty good though, but me not wanting to eat it cause my dad refused to pay the monthly fee or whatever [which eventually led to my departure from going].
I wish her the best of luck as she continues to dabble in graphic design, continues to volunteer every Sunday, and continues to grow in personal and professional ways.
