A Trip Under the Stars

A Trip Under the Stars

"Excuse me ma'am, but what would you..." the airplane attendant asked me but her words drowned in my thoughts as I was looking outside of a tiny plane window. The night sky was beautiful as the plane went soaring through the black atmosphere. My family and I were living in America for almost four years now, but we had to move back to Vietnam for some time because my mom and dad had some business to take care of. Staring out at the dazzling stars and the moon was neon bright; I felt my mind going back in time...

A few years before I immigrated to America, which was when I was still back in my home country, Vietnam. I would have rushed to put on some appropriate clothing for a long trip like this one, as I have remembered. It was in June 2006, when my family and I first immigrated to America. We were all excited but nervous because there will be a lot of complicated paperwork to be done. After I was finished with all the morning procedures, I took my backpack with me and went downstairs where I found everybody was busy with their own thing. Therefore, I set my bag down and ate breakfast. I sat there and thought about how the kids there act, plus how they will treat new students like me at their schools. I was lost in my thoughts and literally jumped when my brother yelled, "Taxi's here!"

I shot a dagger glare at him and hurried to get my bag. It was about ten minutes later when everybody was settled into the cab and off to the airport. We rushed through the security checkpoint and spent the next day on a tiring plane. When we finally arrived, I gave out one satisfactory sigh and got off. There, we saw our dad's side of the family, whom I have not seen ever since I was four. So therefore, we were not very close. Despite that, they helped us to get a house to live and a car to drive around. We were also amazed at how America can be so immensely huge. Eventually, summer had to be over, and fall came. My question at the beginning about how kids will treat me at school answered when I stepped into J.K. Elementary School. Everybody treated nicely towards me and showed me all over the place, too. It was really hard to get used to the environment around me at first, but I developed my love to it through time. I got used to everybody around me and started to join clubs, sports teams, and made some good friends. I had so much fun in America that I forgot everything about my past until one day, I came home and found my mom sitting on the kitchen table. I went and sat down with a glass of milk and asked, "Are you okay, mom?"

She tried to smile because she was so tired so she let out a huge, shakily sigh and said, "We have to move back to Vietnam for a couple of years. Is that okay with you?"

My heart stopped for seconds when I heard this because if I go back, that means I have to abandon my soccer team and say bye to my best friends. I wanted to argue back but instead, I heard myself said, "Yeah, that's alright. I have to do my homework, see you at dinner or something,"

I went into my room and thought about what I have just decided. I could said no and stayed here with my aunt, or with another relative. But then I figured out the reason why I said that was because I almost forgot how to read and write in Vietnamese. I also forgot about the cultures and holidays. It was like a nightmare becoming true, because a person with no memories of their original country was like a person with no actual home. So I happily get packed and hummed to myself...

Suddenly, my mind traveled through a time warp and I was boom, back on the plane. I felt myself blinking a couple of times as if I just woke up from a deep sleep. I thought about what I had remembered and thought about my home country. It was then that I felt sorry for myself. I've turned my back to Vietnam for so long that I started to forget some bits about it. I began to close my eyes and promised myself as I went to sleep on a stone-hard chair on the plane that I would never forget a lesson that I've learned all by myself like this, ever.

To pull a charlie gordon

In the story "Flowers for Algernon", Charlie Gordon was a 37-year-old-man who was not very intelligent. He had an IQ of 68, which was low for an ordinary person. He was also, not very surprising, trickable and doesn't know when people were making fun of him. Like for examble, on page 60, Amos Borg shouted at an office boy, Ernie, for losing a package. He scolded him and yelled that if he wanted to be a Charlie Gordon, which referred as Charlie, a stupid, clumsy and not aware of the things people say around him. So that's kind of like an insult if other people did stuff like Ernie. Therefore, when people say, "Do you want to be a Charlie Gordon?" meaning that you do not want to be Charlie. So generally, to pull a Charlie Gordon, like on page 66 and also in my opinion, means if you make a fool of yourself, other people would refer you to being the same person as Charlie Gordon since in the story, Charlie was a fool, not very smart.