The story of a boy who likes summer vacation in the city

Parents in the city often want to take their children back to the countryside to play every summer. And children, 'swim upstream' to breathe the air of a bustling city like Ho Chi Minh City.

Illustration by DANG HONG QUAN

1. I am a child living in a countryside in the Central region - where there are extremely charming beaches and mountain ranges. In the eyes of parents of city children, living close to the sea - mountains - rivers - streams like me is a dream, so in the summer they often arrange to take their children back to the countryside to experience "countryside summer".

On the contrary, when summer comes, I rush to the city. Saigon has a strange attraction for me, so my mother often lets me stay at my aunt's house all summer. Children in my hometown have long lost their summer because they are busy with school. Luckily, I am not one of them because I have strongly refused all summer classes since elementary school.

My summer is spent cycling along the poetic riverbank of my hometown, watching the flowing water, watching the sunset, or sitting quietly listening to the wind rustling through the hundred-year-old star trees in the grounds of the ancient minor seminary, and then enjoying the next two months in the city that I love so much.

My teachers often laughed and asked me why, when I was a quiet boy who didn’t like crowds and spent at least half an hour every day just imagining, I liked a bustling city like Saigon. Mom answered that question. Saigon to me was not noisy but a quiet city of my own.

Here, I immersed myself in contemporary art and painting exhibitions, wandered around bookstores, went to the city theater to listen to concerts, went to museums, went to the cinema... Just that alone was enough for me to spend countless summers - every year was interesting.

For me, a child's summer does not necessarily have to be "regulated" in the city or the countryside, but what is important is what the child learns there. Summer is the right time for children to learn things that are not in textbooks and my son has not wasted his summer.

2. When I was in elementary school, my aunt often took me to watch cartoons in Ho Chi Minh City during the summer. My aunt was also stubborn, a child who could not yet watch a movie while reading Vietnamese subtitles and could not yet listen to English, but she refused to let me watch the dubbed version. Even though I could only hear a little, the world of cartoon characters fascinated me so much that when I got home, I turned on Netflix to watch one movie after another.

To watch a movie in its entirety, I had to practice listening to English and gradually I was able to watch the original versions of cartoons without subtitles. That's how I learned English.

Mom didn't pay attention until her friend came back from Australia to visit, he - an Australian - told her: "He speaks English quite well and is very mature. I asked him if he wanted to study abroad. He said yes. I asked where he wanted to study. He said Europe or Canada!".

Uncle recounted the conversation between you and me, at this point, Mom knew that the city had planted a dream in you - which for people in the countryside, it was too frivolous. Obviously, it was quite far from our family's conditions, but for Mom, having a dream was always better than not knowing what to dream of.

I like drawing and looking at architectural works so my aunt often takes me to art exhibitions. A little boy goes to exhibitions that seem to be only for adults, because... children don't know anything. It's true that I don't understand anything but I still like it because the painting here is so different from my drawing lessons in class.

After each exhibition, there were so many questions dancing in my head, I went online to find answers for myself. The architectural works were also one of the things that "attracted" me to Ho Chi Minh City every year. I was fascinated by Notre Dame Cathedral, fascinated by the extremely smart calculations of the Independence Palace... Just like that, my aunt took me along, following the beauty of bricks, stones, steel and lime paint...

3. Every year, most parents in the city want to have the opportunity to take their children back to the countryside to play. They want their children to play with chickens and ducks, to watch goats eating grass along the roadside and to wade in the fields to be farmers. A child living close to nature and breathing the countryside air is truly a memorable experience.

And son, "going upstream" to breathe the air of a bustling city like Ho Chi Minh City is also an equally valuable experience, right? So for me, a child's summer does not necessarily have to be "regulated" in the city or in the countryside, but what is important is what the child learns there. Summer is the right time for children to learn things that are not in textbooks and my son has gone through the summer without wasting it.

The city has opened many doors for me to see the world with broader eyes and thanks to that, I have stepped through my favorite door to further my dream of becoming an animator.

And also, I am glad that the journey into the city during the summer has taught you more lessons on how to behave in public. You never raise your voice or litter in public, calmly wait at red lights or line up to buy things, and you also do not have the habit of judging anyone or anything...

I am writing to you when you are 18, learning to grow up and on that journey there are definitely traces of "summers in the city". After this summer, you will officially go to the city to realize your big dream. Starting to live in a place where you think you belong is not too strange, right?

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AN HIEN

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/chuyen-cau-be-thich-nghi-he-o-thanh-pho-20250601105112924.htm