Perspectives
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“Staring across the rice fields toward that unknown mountain, I’d felt alone and quite terrified. My plan to come here, which had once sounded like a great adventure, now seemed foolish, like a game of pretend that I had taken too far. I had nothing except a backpack and a wavering determination to build a life for myself in this place.”

Dana Sachs, The House on Dream Street

The first time I moved to Hanoi it was the fall of 2002, a little over a year after I finished college. I clearly recall the days before my departure when I read and re-read the previous passage by Dana Sachs from her memoir about living in Vietnam. It touched me, resonated with my current sentiments to the point that I found complete and utter comfort in her words. I had nothing as well, nothing tangible, nothing concrete except for an internship. I left the States with very little knowledge about what I was walking. All I knew was that I was drawn to Vietnam, that something inside me told me I needed to be there.

In her book, Dana Sachs likened her experience with Vietnam as a love affair of sorts. I was drawn to that idea, that concept as well because by nature, my orientation toward the world is that of love. I think that while it can be disastrous, it is also a productive orientation, a productive desire – for things to grow and develop and flourish with the presence of love.