The lead-up to the trip

This blog is a retroactive look at the trip I took with my family to the land of origin of my parents: Vietnam. My parents have not been back since they left to pursue their university education and left a country that was not just their home, but a land plagued by many bloody conflicts and showing every sign of far more violent days ahead. It has been over 40 years since either of them walked the streets of their homeland. It could be argued that no country has undergone more significant change in the last 40 years than Vietnam. Battlefield of one of the more notorious wars in recent history, it is hard to fathom much of the Vietnam that is familiar and beloved by my parents would have survived unscathed. Part of the reason why it has taken my parents so long to return to their homeland is the fear of seeing the magnitude of the change undergone. It is hard to leave one's beloved homeland. It is harder to come back to it and realize that it has changed indelibly, perhaps for the worse. Nonetheless, my parents realized that a return back home would be a precious family experience. A chance for their sons to connect with their heritage, for their wives or girlfriends to understand the origin of some of the quirks of their sons, and for themselves, an opportunity to reconnect with the country and the family members they left behind. Whether or not this trip would bring allow my parents to come to peace with what has become of their homeland was uncertain. Whichever the outcome, this trip was nothing short of necessary for everyone.

Thanks for reading.

Tuan