My autobiography (Up to August 16 2k8)

My father always says to us, “We’re not rich people, but I’m pleased and happy with what we are having, and isn’t it great?” I’m so proud of being my father’s son and trying to be happy in any circumstance ‘coz I know that somewhere out there, others are less happy than I could be.
Being the last member in a three-child family, I was born in a typical Vietnamese village of Hung Yen province on December 22, 1988 – a Dragon. After 4 years living there, my father was provided with a piece of land in Gia Lam district – Hanoi (he was a lecturer in Hanoi University of Agriculture). I officially became a Hanoian then. My parents worked very hard to buy another larger land-piece, and even harder to build a better house to live in. I have one brother and my eldest sister, we were brought up as good kids. Father used to say that our clan had reputation for education and bringing-up, and we inherited that quite well.

My mother had to quit her job due to a staff reduction in 1998, she decided to open a small department store to earn a living and more important, to take care of us. The schools I attended were neither famous nor of high-quality – Agricultural Primary school, Agricultural Lower-Secondary school, Cao Ba Quat High school (now when I mention those names to my friends, they even laugh a lot, “What the hell is Agricultural Skuls?”. I don’t usually get hot-tempered with that ‘coz those names are quite weird, indeed) However, we had our two great home-teachers – my father and mother, and it was no doubt we could achieve good study results (In fact, I got some city awards for excellent performance in English and Literature).

When I entered grade 11, my sister got married and had a baby. Her small family lived together with us, and it was great to have so many people living under a roof. (I myself will surely have 4 -5 kids in the future. ^^) One year later, my brother went to study overseas, in Australia for 4 years. It was the time for me to be more mature – there were only two men in our family, dad and me. Proudly, I got more involved in and concerned about “home affairs”. It was also the time I had to study so much to participate the UEE – the greatest “event” to any highschooler.

Getting quite good result in the entrance exam, I enrolled to Finance and Banking major – my favorite one – in Hanoi University. However, I was not pleased with that, and I did participate some scholarships for freshmen from Singapore, Australia, trying to study abroad – like my brother, but obviously, I was not successful. Since then, I decided to spend the rest of my student life in HANU, I also moved to the dormitory for ease of studying and communicating. I found living and studying right in the campus was quite pleasant: I have more time to meet friends, go to the library and join extra-curricular activities.

Like many other students, I also had some part-time jobs: tutor of English, teacher of English, volunteer works, journalist... Apparently, those are not seemingly related to my major ‘coz I find it difficult to find a job in finance sector, indeed. (I’m starting to worry for my future right now.)

To conclude, I think that I’m spending my life quite well, and I’m ok with that. I’m not quite sure, but my father’s saying has become my “tip for life”: We’re not rich people, but I’m pleased and happy with what we are having, and isn’t it great? Isn’t it great?