Short Stories

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I still remember the date when I came to USA. It was August 17th, 1983.

After my twin brother and I graduated from high school in Hong Kong, we did not want to continue our education. There was one thing, however, that we really wanted to do: attending cooking school and pursuing our career as a chef. With permission from our parents, we studied Cantonese cooking and became certified chefs. We thought it was our dream come true, but our parents had another plan for us. They wanted to send us to Chicago for college education. We did not agree but they insisted. Knowing that we had to give up our dream and to follow their plan, I wondered if we could survive in a foreign land without our parents’ presence. My brother and I were raised in the way that we always obeyed what our parents said, and that we were not taught how to live independently.

Reluctantly, we submitted our applications to the immigration office. After a series of questions in the interview, I was accepted and granted a student visa but my brother was rejected.

I had a very good relationship with my brother, and we had never been separated. Knowing that I would be going to Chicago without him, we both felt heavyhearted. My parents suggested that my brother needed to go back to school and tried the application again the following year and that I still needed to go to Chicago first. At that very moment, I wondered when I would see my brother again. I did not know that the Lord already had plans for me. Jeremiah 29:11 says, ‘“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”’ Isaiah 55:8 also reads, ‘“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the Lord.’

Very quickly, the date for me to leave for Chicago finally came. It was August 17th, 1983. My mother was going with me as my guardian, and we would live with her friend temporarily. After settling down in her friend’s house in Chicago, she would go back to Hong Kong. As my mother and I were approaching the departure gate at the airport, my family including my father, 3 sisters, and my brother, were saying goodbye to us. My mom had tears on her face, and I was holding it back but my heart was very heavy. I turned my head to take a look at my family and felt that my father and my brother had already missed me.

My mom and I headed to the airplane. After a moment, the plane took off, and my journey to the United States of America began. I did not realize that my journey with God also began on that very same day.

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