Essay 1 rough Draft

Influences of Life

Within today’s world there are as many people as there are dreams within a night and books within a library. People are born into our world with the ability to learn and develop the characteristics that will define them as individuals of society and change the world that we live in today. As I grew up in Vietnam and the U.S. my character was shaped by both my surroundings and my parent’s traditional values. My surroundings taught me the knowledge of the world that I live in and my parents taught me the ethnical values that supported my surroundings in developing me into the person that I am today.
One of my greatest goals in life is to be myself in everything that I do. Kindness and respect to others is probably one of the many ethnical values that are taught to children when they are young. When I was young I was taught to respect everyone around me especially my elders by both my parent’s and teacher’s. Growing up in Vietnam respect is an ethnical value that is strictly enforced by the Vietnamese community and families. To me kindness is second to respect, because it is what allows a person to be open to others. Because of my beliefs I am kind and respectful to everyone unless they make me believe otherwise. One of the most recent and virtuous characteristics that I have learned from my sword master sensei is to give others the benefit of the doubt before I judge them, for I had a habit of judging others when I had just met them instead of understanding who they are inside. By giving others the benefit of the doubt, I am able to accept them for who they are instead of whom they appear to be, and really get to know them instead of just being acquaintances that meet once in a while. In doing so I am able to make more friends and learn knew things in the world of college education. Because of the many people who I have met in my life, I have learned to be supportive and fair to those around me, who I care for. To be fair and supportive, I am always willing to help a friend in need and listen to them if they wish to say something no matter what is, because to me when a person is willing to talk to me about something that might be important to them and their life it is honorable to listen to what they have to say and provide support to them if I can.
Depending on where, when, and who a child is surrounded by in their living environment, can effect how they mature in the future. Ever since I was young I have always been blessed with great friends, supportive teachers, and an interesting family. Through tough and happy days my friends have always been there for me when I needed them, whether it was just one or all of them I was always happy to know that I had such great friends. It is because of my friends kindness and support to me that I was able to learn what they had shown me and return it them when they need me. I believe that it is because of the friends that I have made while growing up that I am part of who I am today. To me true friendship is a rare treasure all in itself. An educational institution is where we all learn the knowledge of the world that we live in, and practice it out with our friends. For me school was a place of wonder because I did not know what I would have to learn the next day. Throughout the years that I have gone to public schools I have had great teachers who worked to the best of their abilities to teach me the subjects that I needed to know so that I may understand the world around me. It is because of these wise individuals that also make up part of who I am today, a college student willing to learn more about himself and the world around him. To everyone who has ever had a family and neighbors, they know that their family is there to support them and their neighbors are there to provide competition and sometimes support. Up until now, my family has always been there to support me whenever they could and our neighbors have always been friendly to me and allowed me to become friends with them. Because I live in a Garland Vietnamese community area our neighbors would always help us when we needed help and sometimes celebrate things together; it is because of these celebrations that I was able learn many things and the many types of positive characteristics that I can express to others. My community has helped me become the person that I am today by allowing me to make mistakes and learn from them.
In Vietnamese families there are many types of traditional values that are upheld some of them are, the humble greetings, and the general etiquette shown to others, but the most important traditional value of all is respect. For example, to avoid disrespect when they disagree with a topic in a conversation Vietnamese people would usually stay quiet and not talk about the topic. Within my family respect is always first when I had to say something or do something for them. In Vietnamese traditional culture, wealth is not a sign of status, age and education is a sign of prosperity and great social status. This tradition is what my parent’s have been taught ever since they were young in the 1960s-1980s, and this is also exactly what my parent’s still emphasize into what they continue to teach me today. To my parent’s money is not power, the way some people would look at it, but knowledge is power, because it is the source of money. “ You have to have the person that knows how to create the money that we use, before you can have the money” is what my sword master Sensei Kurasaki would always tell me when he compares knowledge with power. This traditional belief is one of the many reasons why I have decided to attend the University of Texas Dallas to learn and develop my skills so that I may succeed in life. One of my parent’s my prized policy within our household has always been to do your best and work hard toward your goals. My parent’s has enforced this policy through my sister ever since she was in school up until she graduated from the very same university that I now attend The University of Texas Dallas. My parent’s believe that through hard work and determination or just ambition a person can achieve anything. I now am faced with the same policy as my sister had, and will try my best to graduate from college with my planed major of ATEC degree in my hand.

The characteristics that I have today deep inside of me is all because of the many special people in my life and the many places that I have seen or visited. My character, surroundings, and my parent’s traditional values are all of the ingredients used to compose me into what I am today and I am very thankful to them for what they have done for me. A person is made up of the many experiences that he or she has experienced throughout their lives, whether it is good or bad is how they choose to look at it and accept it. My personal motto is to just “smile” and do my best.