March 6, 2013

• Silver Spoon

  My sister will be giving birth to her daughter, my niece Ellie, in the next 24 hours or so.  I am very excited.  I have not met her, but I love her already.  

  Because no one in my family thus far has been born with a "silver spoon,"  I have bought her one from Tiffany's and Company.  I am also positive her life will have much more than me and my sister has.

  Ellie My Truong. That's my nieces full name.  I love that name so much.  The middle name My is my sister's name.  My means America in Vietnamese.  My parents escaping the political, war-torn Vietnam in 1981 were so ecstatic to finally make it to America that when they had their first daughter, they named her after the country that had so graciously provided them refuge.

  I was having lunch with my much older coworkers today and I did not finish my noodles in my soup.   I eat all my veggies, meats, and drink a good amount of the soup, but I almost never finish my rice or noodles.  I make an effort to eat as much nutrient dense food as possible and rice and noodles do not fall into this category.   In essence, I have nearly cut out all rice in my diet.  I am still a huge sucker for noodles and will still have a healthy amount in my meals.  

  The conversation of the lunch took a turn as they realized I was throwing away my noodles.  One coworker proceeded to tell me a story of how when she goes to Vietnam, she goes to the most rural areas passing out toys and medicinal supplies to the village people and how little they truly have. My other coworker follows up asking me if I have ever been hungry?  "Like starving?" I ask.  "No, never."   They see my diet choice as wasteful and take it to mean I don't know what it means to appreciate what I have. 

  My coworkers are Asian and they are much older and love to teach lessons on life.   They assume my Berkeley-educated, born in America, work-in-a-cubicle self has never known what it is like to grow up not having much.  They think I have had my world handed to me and I was born with a silver spoon.  

  They don't know about being baby and wearing all of my sister's hand me downs.  They do not know that all through elementary, I had one pair of shoes and 3 pairs of clothes for the week.  That even in middle school I still only had enough clothes to have one different shirt a week.   They do not know that as a kid I stood outside of the Second Harvest food bank with my sister and my mother during Christmas to receive the one toy I would get for the year.   They do not know that during the summer when it got too hot, our subsidized apartment housing with its lack of air conditioning got so hot, that my mom would take us on a 20 minute walk to Mervyn's so we can escape the heat.   They do not know that I worked 3 jobs simultaneously during high school.  They don't know in college I lived in the living room with no privacy of a one bedroom apartment to save money.  And they don't know that every month of my professional career I give my parents money for rent, spending money, and groceries.  

  I simply hold my tongue and listen.   

  So I never had it that easy.  I am not saying I had it hard, but my life was never that with a silver spoon. But Ellie will most likely have that.  And that makes me happy.  

  

  Her nursery room with crib vs my nursery room and crib.  And yes I am the one in pink.  

  Ellie, prepare to have the best Uncle ever! 

  • 4:50 pm
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