Overcome Stereotypes and Yourself

Ngo Hai Viet

Everyone has heard of the saying “no pain… no gain.” This classic proverb can be applied to any or all aspects of life if one is able to fully accept the hardships which they may face and turn that negative moment to an experience that they could learn from. Though I have not faced such relentless hardships as losing a family member or close friend to a war, or being oppressed by a political group, I also have my fair share of hardships; being hard or not, the challenges which I have faced has ultimately allowed me to grow into a mature being.

As I had been making the transition from middle school to high school, I was a shy student who was always quiet and nervous to talk to others. During my sophomore year, I decided to change everything and become an active student. I became involving with the German Club of my school and received the title of “Drinking Champion” because no one was able to beat me in a drinking contest during the Oktoberfest, which is a German holiday. In my junior year, recognizing that being in just one club was not enough for me, I decided to play two sports: cross-country and tennis. Cross-country was the hardest thing that I have ever done in my whole life experience; this rigorous running sport put up my physical and mental ability to challenge. In playing cross-country, I learned the importance of self-discipline, where I was responsible for my own actions and the outcome is based on the amount of effort I put in. I ran cross-country as a junior varsity player during my junior year in high school; I was perhaps one of the slowest runners in the district. But the summer after cross-country, I felt that last place is never good enough and I ran every day and challenged my physical abilities and took it to a whole new level. Coming back to the sport this year, I represented my school as a varsity runner and even surpassed my old personal record by over 7 minutes – which in terms of cross-country is a lot.

As a student of Vietnamese descent, my parents have always pushed me to be successful in school. Pushed to the point of annoyance, I myself became motivated to make my parents happy. During my sophomore year, I decided that the regular courses in my school were not hard enough for me so I joined the Honors program during the second semester. Going into my junior year, along with my drive to try out sports, I wanted to challenge myself academically. By joining classes such as AP United States history and AP English Language and Composition, I acquired the knowledge on time management. Though I only received a 2 on the AP exam for English Language and Composition, I believe that this class greatly improved my writings in diction and syntax. AP United History on the other hand, taught me how to manage my time wisely because our teacher gave out the most homework per night in the entire school, I received a passing grade of a 3 on the AP exam. I furthermore decided to help out the community by joining Parkrose Philanthropy Project which was a community service based club. I am now taking the two hardest classes in my school – AP Calculus and AP English Literature and Composition- which many students coward out of. In addition to my academic challenges, I applied for and was accepted into the National Honor Society.

One of my greatest hardships that I have faced is the social conflict between two cultures in my life, my traditional Vietnamese roots and the American society that I have grown to assimilate into. Being born in America, I found it hard to adapt to the strict guidelines and rules of my parents. Furthermore, I am not as fluent, as I should be, in reading and writing in Vietnamese. Feeling bad not for my parents, but for myself, I decided that I need to become more involved in my community. During my freshmen and sophomore years of high school, I became involved with the new and experimental Vietnamese club that was being created at my school and joined the lion dance group. Though we are not as good as other lion dance groups within Portland, Oregon, I believe that we still represented our culture very well as we danced not only for our Vietnamese community, but also for our peers in our school. Often, the Asians in our school are often misjudged by the students of other schools as being stupid or gangsters because of a racial fight that occurred in our school a long time ago. This type of perception of our school shows the ignorance of other schools that only speak by what they have heard, not by what they have seen. By joining the lion dance group, I believe that we did not only represent our Vietnamese culture, but also our school to show that we are like everyone else.

Though I do not have a life-changing story which greatly influenced my life or not being able to write a sophisticated essay in Vietnamese, I believe that it is the little things that count. Through attempting to achieve this scholarship, I hope to defuse the stereotypes that are cast upon the Asian community of my school, showing that we too can achieve great awards.

Ngo Hai Viet