Self-Discovery: My Journey from Birth to Present

**Introduction:**

Hello everyone! In this storyl share the story of my life, from my birth to the present day. It's a journey filled with ups and downs, moving from one place to another, and discovering who I am. Let's dive into it!

**Early Life:**

I was born on the same day as the Lord's birth, a special day for many. My family consisted of my mother and a different father, as my paternal family did not accept my mother as a wife. My mother, not wanting to cause trouble, chose to move away and live elsewhere.

**A New Beginning:**

Later, my mother met another man, a bachelor, and they worked in Ho Chi Minh City. Seeing my mother's hardship, this man helped her a lot, and they eventually married on a mountain in Vung Tau, at a temple where my grandfather practiced Buddhism. My father had a tradition of Buddhism and practiced meditation since he was young, so it was easy for me to accept everything as it was shaped.

**Return to Ho Chi Minh City:**

My parents returned to Ho Chi Minh City to continue living. My father finished school and worked with my mother selling fish. From there, events unfolded. My father received a call from his family asking him to return to our hometown to take care of me being born and also to follow the tradition of the wife returning to the husband's family.

**Birth and Early Years:**

At that time, my mother was about to give birth to me, so she needed a place to take care of me. Despite my mother's reluctance, she had to follow her husband, as it was the Vietnamese custom. When we arrived in Hue City at the end of 1999, which was Christmas Day, I was born at Hue Central Hospital, during a catastrophic storm and floods. After my birth, my parents returned to Ho Chi Minh City because Hue was not as developed, with all jobs concentrated in larger cities. I lived with an aunt for a few years.

**Moving Back to Hue:**

Later, my maternal family called us back to Hue City. I remember taking the train back to our hometown. Due to lifestyle and customs that my mother didn't like, she left me with my maternal family. At that time, my mother gave birth to another half-brother. When I was about to enter primary school, my father posted an advertisement looking for my mother because she had been away from the family for too long. He did this because he wanted to divorce my mother since he had met someone new.

**Family Struggles:**

Speaking of my father, in Vietnam, we have a habit of drinking whenever we work, so my mother didn't like that about him. She didn't know when he would come home at night, so their relationship deteriorated from there. As for my life, at that time, I no longer remembered my mother's face, so my mother had to show me pictures for me to believe that was her. Then, my family made the choice for one person to follow my father and one person to follow my mother. My mother wanted me to follow her, so I went with her to the South to live. At that time, I was almost 7 years old.

**New Life in the South:**

When I went South, I found out that my mother, for the sake of establishing her career, had married a man in the city and had given birth to a younger sister. At first, I wasn't allowed to meet my sister because of various reasons, so I was sent to live with relatives near Ho Chi Minh City. When I went South, I was very happy, but my friends noticed that my voice was different, so some of them fought with me, and I don't remember the reason.

**Life with My Maternal Grandfather:**

After a while, when it was time to enroll in school, my maternal grandfather came and asked to adopt me. I was very excited, and my mother agreed because she saw how much I liked it. My maternal grandfather was a Buddhist practitioner on a mountain in Vung Tau. Later, my mother and stepfather took me to the temple to become a monk.

**Life at the Temple:**

Life at the temple was initially quite dull. My grandfather taught me to study Buddhist scriptures, and my daily life consisted of waking up at 4 am to recite scriptures, having a vegetarian meal at noon, and performing ancestral worship in the afternoon, repeating this routine. I also started going back to school. I think from that time on, I started to be interested in playing, which eventually led to my lack of understanding of anything now. At the temple, when I broke something, my grandfather would punish me. It was the first time in my life that I was trained on what to do and what not to do. At that time, I didn't feel it, but when I left the temple, I felt very happy. Everything I wanted to do was play, but then I felt sad when I returned to the temple.

**Conclusion:**

Thank you for listening to my story. This journey from birth to now has been filled with many experiences that shaped who I am today. I hope sharing my story helps you understand me better and maybe even resonate with your own life experiences. If you have any questions or thoughts, please leave them in the comments below. Don't forget to like, share, and subscribe for more stories and content. Thank you!