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ESCAPE
FROM VIETNAM Page 15 Epilogue Soon
after we landed, the Malaysian villagers on the island notified the Red Cross
office in Kotakinabalu, a city on the Malaysia mainland which is about an hour
by boat away from the island. The
very next day, the Red Cross came to bring us food and clothes.
Over the next week, they also brought in raw materials and hired the
villagers to build us a camp on the far side of the island, away from the main
village itself. Later,
I was told by one of the people on our boat who could speak English and had
talked with the Red Cross officials that we were very lucky to land on this
island, Pulau Mantanani. It was one
of the easternmost islands of Malaysia. If
we had missed this island and continued southward, the next land we would sight
is Australia, which is another month away.
If it happened, none of us would be alive by the time the boat reached
Australia. Despite
the incredible conditions of the journey, none of the people on the boat died
during the journey. The 70 years
old lady was taken to the hospital in the mainland as soon as the Red Cross
people came to the island. never heard nor saw her again. Our
boat was the first Vietnamese refugee boat ever to land on the island.
Thus, the villagers were extremely good to us.
After staying for seven months in the camp, I was resettled in San Diego,
California with my cousin's family. We
were one of the last people to leave that camp.
On the day we left, the villagers came to tear down the camp.
I was told that the Malaysian Red Cross don't want to put future
Vietnamese refugees in that camp. Thus,
we were the first and the last Vietnamese refugees to come to the island. More than 13 years had passed since the day I escaped from Vietnam. The escape marked a dramatic turn in my life. The freedom and opportunities in the United States had offered me the chance realize my potential. My parents were not as fortunate as I was. After being imprisoned for seven years in re-education camp, my father was finally released in 1982. By that time, my mother had arranged for all of my brothers to escape from Vietnam successfully. She could have escaped with us, but chose to stay instead to wait until my father was released. In September 1982, my parents escaped from Vietnam on a boat, which probably was not much different from the one I escaped on. Tragically, their boat was lost in the South China Sea, and I never heard from my parents again. As I reflected about all the events that had happened to me during the past fifteen years, I could not help but think if God had planned everything in our lives. Why wasn't I drafted and killed in the battlefields of Kampuchea like other youths in my town? Why was my life spared in the midst of the terrible storm of the South China Sea, but not my parents'? Why couldn't my mother escape with us? Why did my parents have to escape? If they didn't escape, I could have sponsored them through the Orderly Departure Program, and I wouldn't be an orphan like I am today. There were many other why's that I would never be able to find an answer for. The
tragedies, sufferings, and tribulations that I experienced had given me a unique
perspective of life. It is
unnecessary to expound on what my view of life is. More important are the lessons that I learned from those
experience: the will to live and to survive, no matter how desperate and hopeless
the situation may be, the humility to understand and sympathize with those who
are less fortunate, and the willingness to pay for and earn everything I can get
in life, instead of taking them for granted. Thirteen years ago, if someone told me that I, a fourteen years old orphan who was just fresh of the boat from Vietnam, would one day be admitted to prestigious institutions such as the Stanford Graduate School of Business, Harvard Business School and Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management, I would have thought that person was a lunatic. Yet, what was improbable thirteen years ago is a reality today. Only in a free country like the United States could I advance so far. But that was only half of the story. Without the infinite love and sacrifice of my parents, I wouldn't even be alive today. To me, my success is a result, a tribute to the insuppressible human spirit and sacrifice of my parents. This
true story is dedicated to my parents, who have sacrifice everything in their
lives so that their children could have a better future.
TRINH DO STANFORD UNIVERSITY GRADUATE
SCHOOL OF BUSINESS
MARCH 1, 1991 Home Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
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