What will I share at the end of May with my fellow English teachers? I have a few ideas and I will share them with you here first:
First, the time I have spent in Vietnam has made me a more independent and confident person. Before moving to Lang Son, I had never lived alone. In college, I always had a roommate. If I needed help with something, or if I needed to talk about something, my roommates and friends were always close by. In Lang Son, it is a different story. If I want to talk in English with someone about my day, I have to remember that when it is morning in Vietnam, it is night time in Minnesota. This means that when I face problems, I have to deal with them on my own before asking anyone else for advice. If I feel lonely, I have to be brave and make friends with the people in my community. Worst of all, if I see a cockroach in my home, I have to be the one to kill it. In other words, I have to be the leader in my life. No one will do things for me. So, in Vietnam, I have to push myself to make quick decisions and feel confident about them.
Second, living in Vietnam has helped me deal with my social anxiety. When a person has social anxiety, it means that they have a tough time talking with others and they may feel very nervous when they are surrounded by a lot of strangers. When I traveled to Ho Chi Minh City by myself, I was very nervous because I was in a place with a lot of people that I did not know. To make myself feel a little bit better, I thought about how lucky I was to be in a place with people that I had never met before. Every person on Earth has a unique story to tell.
