My_First_Tet

My first Tết away from home: allusion and reality...   Tết…my dear Tết… Here it comes my first Tết ever being away from home, my beloved ones, and the alley I used to walk with my best friend every Lunar New Year Eve…   It is hard to admit that I am away from home…   My first Tết here in the U.S. can be completely described in this four letter word c-o-l-d... I don’t really know where to begin with because that memory still fills a part of my soul until now… Last year’s Tết fell right on Valentine’s Day, which would have been my first one ever…   I wished someone had brought Tết to this far away land for me: I could not see the clear blue sky unique to Tết, the red color of decorations, the streets busy with tons of people running in different directions like mad mans, complaining about not having enough time to prepare for a decent Tết, which also amuses me at that time as I was walking in my own mind to search for pictures of Tết. The first and foremost feeling occupying myself was: I missed Tết, so much…   [The New Year Eve had always been the prettiest night in the whole long year. If I had been home, I would first have gone to my grandmom’s house that is steps away. My small family would have had dinner with her with all kind of different homemade foods that feature Central Vietnam flavors (my grandmom is originally from Quảng Bình). Four of us were naughty enough to make fun of my grandmom’s cooking, which didn’t frustrate but embarrassed her, because she would make spring rolls as big as the fattest bananas, or make Thịt Kho Tàu with eggs that still have the eggshell on. My family would laugh so hard or at least we kids did since we could tell one another something in English that my parents and grandmom couldn’t understand. If my older sister was home, she, my Mom and my little cutie sister would then go out to buy more last-minute decorations for sale. I, Dad and my younger brother would go home together instead because I always have a date at New Year Eve.   My best friend from the neighborhood would have been waiting for me. When Dad and my brother would go home to watch TV, I and my best friend would walk around our hamlet for hours, just the two of us, steps after steps, laughter after laughter. It was one of the most peaceful moments in my life because no one else would be out around the neighborhood by then. We had the whole alley, filling it with stories after stories and our giggles.] I missed her so much… The feelings when you long for your beloved ones are those that you can easily get buried by… [Then we each would rush home just minutes away from the very moment of New Year Eve because our Moms wouldn’t want us to be the first ones to step in our houses. According to some supernatural beliefs, the first one to step in a house will decide how well or bad the year will get so we are all very careful about this. But no worries, I could always see her again if both of us were told to be those first persons. About 30 mins before the New Year comes, my dear Daddy would bring a table out to our front yard so that my Mom can prepare some traditional rituals.]   I love the atmosphere, that uniquely wonderful and warm atmosphere to be at home with all the ones you love and with other beloved ones in your heart… [After the New Year Eve moment, we four would line up in front of our parents to greet them and especially to receive lucky money from our dearest parents. My Dad always said that early lucky money like that was good because it is still “hot,” you kids will get more luck. For me, I didn’t really care about how much I was given because I used to give them all back to Mom or save for my parents in case they needed. When I grew up a little more, I preferred saving them to buy gifts for my beloved ones. Then, we would did the same thing to my another grandmom after we returned to my Dad’s mother house to greet her. It is funny when two years are a few hours apart like that… We would then have a small meal to welcome New Year].   I missed my parents, my siblings and my grandmoms so dearly that my head started to hate getting back to the reality… [One or two days later, it would be time to see my dear Teacher, which is also one of the happiest moments in my life. Her house was always so warm and dear to me like my own house.] I missed the flowers she often decorated very elaborately by herself… [She would later drive me to the center of the city by going through those empty streets with the cool air embracing the two of us. We would go eat ice-cream and share with each other all the stories in our lives.] That kind of peacefulness, that kind of slowly passing time, that kind of bond between the two of us, I cannot tell by words… They started to occupy my mind and my heart ached as I knew I couldn’t go home to be beside any of my beloved ones…   Yes, the very first stage of me when Tết was around was like that: home was so far away, I felt missing something really important within. The breeze in the air wasn’t the same thing I used to get so excited about as when I was home, in a tropical country where we never have winter. The silence that filled the whole neighborhood wasn’t something that gave me the peacefulness and silence for my mind, rather emptiness and lonesomeness. Hardly anyone here knew how special Tết is, they will never do. Waking up, looking at the gray sky with snow covering houses’ roofs and with people rushing to work day by day pulled me back to the reality that school was waiting for me, not Tết, not Mom and Dad, not sisters and brothers, not grandmoms, not my best friend nor my dear Teacher…   The very moment of Tết of another far far away land, the very first moment of Valentine’s Day was as teary as it could ever get… I walked on the icy streets with a vague understanding of where I would end up or what would be behind the misty sky above my head, with my eyes filled with water and the song “Love Road” at the back of my mind…   “I do and will always love you… I love you more than anything else in this world… You are and forever will be the one in my life…” said a girl with her very first Tết away from home…   …   I wish my most wonderful parents health and happiness filling their gracious hearts, I wish my dear grandmoms good health to be besides us ever after, I wish my dear brother and my dear sister and my cousins at home laughter and precious moments in life, I wish my dear sister a warm Tết away from home, love and happiness all year long I wish my beloved Teacher love and happiness filling her most precious heart and soul, I wish my dear best friend a delightful and warm very first Tết away from home, I wish my dear darling a warm and wonderful Tết, wish you a year full of love and peacefulness filling your most beautiful heart and soul. You may not know how much I miss you all and how priceless you are to my life…