Intro.

I often get ask about what ethnicity I am. People always think that I'm Korean or Chinese, but much to their astonishment I reply, "No, I'm Hmong". The most common response is, "What is that"? Of course this is when I have to sit them down and explain to them the history of my culture, my ancestry, and where my people come from. For all of those who have never of heard of the Hmong people I will give you a brief overview. Although there are many different concepts and theories of where we originate from the most common theory is that we originated from China. The second most popular theory is that we originated from Mesopotamia, know knows as Iraq. Just so things stay simple we'll just stick with the first theory for this section of the story. It is said that we are most closely related to the Chinese people. They're our sister race as some may call it. Oddly enough though I would be slightly surprised if most Chinese people know of us. The second most popular question I get is, "What country do you belong to" or "What country are you from"? I'm sorry but this is the part where I often laugh. I don't mean to be rude and I know that for the most part they don't either. I appreciate most people's sense of enthusiasm and eagerness to learn. It's the only way to fight ignorance against any race. Anyways, we don't come from one specific place or country. We come from all over. Our race is a nomadic race. We travel where it is necessary to stay alive or to make a living for ourselves and our families. More recently though, we have been coming from Thailand or Laos. That's actually where my family and I'm from. I was born in Thailand in a refugee camp. We came to the United States right before I turned one in July of 1987. A new place, a new home, a new struggle. We'll expand on this topic more. If there are any questions, please do send them.

I find myself sometimes wondering why I am the only one who has to face some of the dilemmas that I do, but I always know that deep down I'm not alone. I'm sure all of you can relate to that to some degree. Its one thing to be from a different race residing in a country you know your not originally from, but its another to know that most of the world has never even heard of your race. That is much harder. Our culture is still very old fashioned, therefore, it makes it harder for us younger generation to make a happy living for ourselves. It's hard enough dealing with certain pressures in our lives but to have to deal with those pressures from two different cultures and two different worlds just makes life all the harder. Our parents want what is best and for all of us to succeed in life like all parents do. They want us to be doctors, lawyers, business owners, and all of the above so that we can be wealthy and not worry about half the things that they had to, but they want us to achieve all of this in a world that is so different from our culture yet they want us to maintain our beliefs, cultures, and traditions. We can't stray from that or else our reputation becomes tarnished and we can possibly be ostracized in our community. I always describe my life as living in two worlds that can't collide. Playing and pretending like I belong in both worlds so that neither worlds realize that I'm just an aimless wanderer, a visitor, who stumbled into a world by accident and born into another by mistake. Not to sound like I'm not proud of who I am because I am. I love being Hmong and I love being an American. I even think of myself as a Thai. I love the fact that I was born in Thailand. Just being born there will forever leave a mark in my heart forever. I consider myself all of these things. It doesn't mean though that loving all these things about myself doesn't make it hard. There's more struggles and more obstacles to overcome than I ever thought before.