I spent two weeks with six other Vietnamese students in Thousand Oaks, California. We are exchange students. We had never been to the States, or even abroad, before. We had never been away from our family before. We had never communicated in a second language before. We were a group of scared, inexperienced, timid kids. Each of us stayed with an American host family. Together we visited many places in California. Two weeks was too …showed first 75 words of 975 total…

…showed last 75 words of 975 total…need to do is open my heart. My journey has just begun; this is the moment I truly step into life. A whole new world is opening up before me; it may be bitter, may be sweet. My parents have many times warned me of the consequences if I fail to achieve my college dream. I thought: "Failure, I definitely don't want it. But..." - I smiled - "... I don't know yet how it tastes."