Missing the old days - Thai Nguyen Electronic Newspaper

My mother gave birth to me on a day at the end of April. She said that day, it had stopped raining and the whole country was joyfully preparing to celebrate the 3rd anniversary of the Liberation of the South and the reunification of the country. After my mother’s “dying and coming back to life” pain, I came into this world with a very loud cry. Outside the waiting room, my father and everyone else thought that crying so loudly was definitely a boy. However, contrary to my parents’ wishes, I was a chubby baby girl.

When my mother gave birth to me, my eldest sister was only 6 years old but she already knew how to help her mother with many things. She had to look after her second sister, help her mother pick vegetables, and cook rice, but she was very happy because the family had another lovely baby girl. She was too young to understand her mother's feelings - the eldest daughter-in-law of the family, but for the third time she was still a girl...

Perhaps when she was pregnant, my mother really wanted me to be a boy. Therefore, the older I got, the stronger and more individualistic I became. According to my eldest sister, when I was little, I looked like a boy with short hair and sunburned skin. When I was in primary school, because my family was poor, my parents had to work hard to earn money to raise their children, so they had little time to care for us. Therefore, I was often bullied by my schoolmates without my parents knowing. At first, I was very afraid of my naughty friends. But then "even a worm will turn", I dared to fight one-on-one with some boys in the next class. I don't know if it was luck or because I had been "oppressed" for too long, but even though it was 1 "against" 3, I still "fought" very hard and won...

Also because I went to school in a different district, when I entered secondary school, my mother transferred me to a school near my house. I was so happy to escape being bullied and to go to school with my friends in the neighborhood! From then on, my studies continued to "progress" steadily. Because I was discovered to have a talent for using language, thinking and writing, in grade 9, my literature teacher "called" me to join the school team to train and prepare for the city-level literature competition. When I first joined the team, I always felt inferior and very confused because my friends all came from well-off families, their parents created conditions for them to study since they were young, and reference books filled the house. Meanwhile, a poor child like me, every time a new school year approached, I worried that my parents wouldn't have enough money to buy notebooks and pay tuition at the beginning of the year...

Although my family was poor and lacked books, I was very studious. Every time I borrowed a book from a friend, I read it voraciously, forgetting to eat. That love helped me accumulate a lot of useful knowledge to serve my literature studies. In the city-level competition for excellent students that year, the school team had 10 students participating (including me). Going to the competition with a happy mindset, I always determined that it was only to exchange and learn because that year, the city's secondary school for the gifted (later Chu Van An Secondary School) was established and attracted many "talents" from other schools to study. They were the main force participating in this important competition and I thought I had no chance of winning. For that reason, after finishing the exam, I did not care about the results. But surprisingly, two weeks later, the head teacher called me to the principal's office to announce that I was one of two members of the team that won the second prize in the city-level Literature competition (there was no first prize that year). I was overwhelmed with joy and happiness.

Knowing that their daughter won the prize, my parents were very happy and the reward for that result was that my father promised to attend the parent-teacher meeting at school (instead of letting my eldest sister go like usual). Understanding the hard work of my parents, for me, that was a very precious reward. I believe that my father was very happy and proud of his daughter when she attended the meeting, so that he could see that, although I am not the son that my parents expected, I always have more perseverance, patience and effort than the boys in my class.

Being born, growing up and studying in such difficult years has given me many experiences, to understand that, to turn dreams into reality, I must always make constant efforts. It was the second prize in Literature at the city level that year that urged me to pass the entrance exam to the Literature class of the Provincial Gifted School (now the Specialized High School)... And just like that, journalism came to me like a "heaven-sent" opportunity when I registered for the Journalism Faculty just to prepare and prevent failure...

Life is a series of happy and sad memories. Every time summer comes, some people are absorbed in the Sim flowers, others are daydreaming about the purple of the Lagerstroemia. As for me, every time the cicadas chirp, signaling the passing of Spring and the coming of Summer, I cannot help but reminisce and miss the days of my childhood and youth that have passed... What I remember most is the feeling of being immersed in the bustling atmosphere of the annual April 30 and May 1 holidays. Then the whole day when the whole country celebrated Uncle Ho's birthday (May 19). When I was a child, the country was still in difficulty, many families, despite the situation of "eating today, worrying about tomorrow's meal", still prepared a more elaborate meal than usual to welcome the important days of the country.

Today, when “food and clothing” are no longer a concern, families have a full and prosperous life, the quality of life has improved, on the occasion of the national reunification holiday, on all the roads of my hometown, everywhere is bright with flags and flowers. The people of my hometown celebrate the victory and Uncle Ho's birthday with exciting performances; the sisters and mothers actively participate in the exciting folk dance competition... On this occasion, many families and children come back to gather in the joy and happiness of their parents...

I feel so happy to be born on this important occasion of the country. I am even happier that the people of my hometown have overcome many difficult days to build a prosperous and happy life today. As I sit here writing these lines, many emotions are surging within me. Somewhere, the song "Uncle is marching with us..." resounds so cheerfully. We all feel the changes in our homeland today. With the Party and Uncle Ho, life will always be beautiful...

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