Vincent Truong

My full name is Vincent Truong, I am a Vietnamese-American, and yes my mother never gave me a middle name. My profile picture contains the things most important to me in life, friends, family, and education. These things developed as priorities in stages to my life. The first thing that I learned was family. Family was always the most prioritized thing in the household growing up. Growing up in a Vietnamese household meant many things. The most were the concepts of respecting your elders, loving your family, and other stereotypes associated with an Asian upbringing. Luckily for me, my mother immigrated to the United States in the 7th grade, allowing her to better assimilate into American culture, which adherently led to me being raised in a fusion kind of way. It’s one of the things I’m most grateful for as I felt that my mom took the best of both worlds and raised me to be a decent person overall. As a child I had always resented being Asian, it wasn't necessarily cool, and it was the reason for a lot of negativity at the start of my schooling. Education was always a large focus in my life. In the 2nd grade I had my whole life planned, which included a diploma from Harvard’s law school, and my eventual inauguration as a president of the United States. Despite my change in life goals, as I sit in my dormitory at the University of Georgia, I don't think I could be any happier. A large part of that is credited to my cherished friends. Friendship is something I learned later in life after breaking out of my awkward shell of being a sheltered child who went to a school where I stood out like a sore thumb. Eventually I began to ease my way out and to this day I am considered by many to be one of the more social people they know. I credit my happiness and who I have become to these three integral components of my life.