#40. Holt Nguyen-Lee, My Gift to America
60 years ago, my grandparents fought to survive. The Vietnam War took the lives of over one million people. All my grandparents could do was hope for their children to make it to a safe place. In 1981, they escaped Vietnam, and my mom was born in an Indonesian refugee camp. However, her humble beginnings didn’t define her. In America, she fought to thrive past survival. Our stories are important because they teach us the power of human strength and resilience. Today, I live to fight for the survival of my people’s stories. In this generation, we must protect our people’s history. Asian-American role models like Ke Huy Quan and Amanda Nguyen work hard to keep our stories alive. Mere survival was once a part of our life, now our stories must survive to remember our history. My gift to America is fighting for the survival of my people’s stories.