Living in America

By Sopeeda Suy

             

As a Cambodian girl born and raised in America I faced many obstacles. When you are born in America people expect a lot from you.  There will be many people who is going to put you down but everyone has their strengths and weaknesses so it doesn’t matter from what place you come from. But I do believe wherever place you are born in, it is good to try your best to speak their language so you can communicate with people living there. It will also help you to go to school and find a job. Growing up I noticed that other people of a different race knew how to speak, read, and write in their own language. Because of that it made me aspire to do the same. I did not want to forget about where my family came from and my ethnicity. When I attended high school I seen many Cambodian students who emigrated from Cambodia. I envied them because I wanted to be able to read and write in Khmer just like them. After that, I decided to take a Khmer class for all four years that I have attended high school and was able to be proficient in it. I wanted to prove to everyone that even though I am a Cambodian girl born in America that I can also speak my own language and not forget about where my parents and ancestors came from. Khmer was not my first language and many Cambodians who emigrated from Cambodia and already knew the language think that I was clueless about my own country. They think I only embrace other people’s cultures other than my own and do not consider myself as a Cambodian. Many whisper to each other saying that Cambodian children born in America these days don’t know anything. But they do not know that I could understand what they are saying. Although, I understand why they are thinking this way because there are many Cambodian people born in America who do not consider themselves as a Cambodian and do not value our culture. But I am the many who actually appreciates where I came from as well as wanting to learn about Cambodian culture and traditions.  It hurts for me to hear that they think that Cambodians born in the United States weren’t raised the right way. I know before I was not good at speaking in Khmer but at least I tried my very best until I could finally read in Khmer. For the reason that I was born in the Unites States I wanted to try my best to be good at learning the English language. Because the place I live in requires learning and knowing English. Learning the English language opened doors for me to find a great career and become successful in America. When I graduate with my degree I want to represent myself as a successful Cambodian American woman.

I have always wanted to travel to Cambodia but I have not been able to go due to the struggles and money problems my family had to face ever since they immigrated to America. Living in America was very hard for my parents because they had to adapt to the environment and different cultures. They had to learn the English language so they can go to school and find a good job to pay off bills. I should have already traveled to Cambodia because there are so many years that I could have gone but everyone has their own timeline in life. Not only have I not traveled to Cambodia I still have yet to travel around the world. My parents had a well thought out timeline for our life living in America.  In order for us to travel they want to make sure that we have everything set. Within the years my parents have been working so much to save up money for our family to move to a better place. My father used to be a landlord and owned a 3 family apartment located in a busy neighborhood. They always had their mind not only on the present but also the future of our family. As the years go by my parents finally bought a single family home in a nice and peaceful neighborhood. Living in a single home for the beginning was also a struggle especially when salaries weren’t as high as it is today. We had to know when to spend and not to spend in order to save money for the future. These were some of the reasons why we weren’t able to travel because traveling is very expensive. We had other goals we wanted to achieve before we started traveling. From all the years that I lived with my parents I appreciate them for all the sacrifices and obstacles they withstood for me to become the person I am today. They did everything they can to be able to give their children a wonderful and bright future.

I will be graduating on May 26, 2016 with an associate’s degree in Business and then I will be transferring to a four-year university. My field of study is in Accounting and I plan to pursue a master’s degree so I can become a certified public accountant. Since I am the oldest child of my family I want to graduate and earn a degree as a gift to my parents.