Essay 1 - An Old American Woman

An Old American Woman

In 2024, I landed in Chicago where it snows every year. I was born and grew up in Vietnam, which never has snow, so I did not know how to prepare for the winter season. I came to the U.S in August 2025, and everything was very new. I rented a house from an old American woman who became my landlady and still is today. She was warm, took care of me all the time and helped me whenever I needed. When autumn was ending and winter was coming, I experienced the cold and snow for the first time. Despite many new and difficult things for me, my landlady made me realize the truth about American hospitality.

The more autumn was amazing, the more winter was surprising. In the first weeks of that winter, the weather was changing, and I could clearly feel the temperature drop. When I went to buy some food in the market, many people were wearing warm clothes, gloves and winter shoes that I had never seen before. That year, snow started falling around the middle of November. The temperature became lower, and I eventually got sick. I tried to eat and took medicine because I was afraid of going to the emergency room. This was the first time I experienced this weather, and my landlady knew this. She sent messages everyday to make sure I stayed safe, warm and healthy. She reminded me to be careful if I went outside, and asked me to cover all my skin. She also taught me how to keep the pipes from freezing. It was a huge problem if the pipes burst. After a few days, the snow became thicker. It was cold and messy, but she came to my house and gave me some food and medicine. I was surprised a lot because she was old and lived far from my neighborhood, and I did not want her to come to my house because it was very dangerous. Even though snow was falling, she came and helped me shovel snow around my house every morning in the whole winter.

         When I was growing up in Vietnam, I used to hear people around me always say American culture had many good things. I did not understand at that time, but now I almost understood exactly what they meant. All of these experiences with my landlady, however, did not match what I was told growing up, but she made me want to become a person like her.

I was not raised here, and I knew the way I live depends on the environment I really lived in. Studying abroad was my dream, and my parents also. They always want me to become a person who is independent and successful, that’s why they sent me to the U.S. I will study in Chicago for a total of four years so hopefully I can learn it. After four years, when I go back to my country, my parents will see the difference between me, before and after. I will keep talking about my experiences from Chicago with everyone around me because I really appreciate what I have received in America.

Mai,

ESL 100

My Ancestor

Danny Lee

ESL-100 CE

My Ancestor

   

Times Change Lives

 

Allen/Zilun Liu

November 1, 2026

ESL 100

Times Change Lives

        Before I went abroad for my college studies, I had so many arguments with my family. My grandparents always said, “I won’t support you if you want to go to the United States.” I was confused,“Why did you support my parents?”.  “Time is changing, my darling.” Over the last several decades, the opening-up policy has significantly changed my country, China. Chinese governments were unwilling to see the economy improving in a slow speed, so we started making more connections on business and technology with foreigners. This great event not only enriched China’s economic structure, but also influenced my whole family's path and living philosophy both positively and negatively.

        During the 1970s, when the concept of opening-up policy was first created by Deng Xiao Ping, my grandparents had the chance to be educated in China, which laid the solid foundation for their successful business in the following years. Based on their long-term vision and a little luck, they invested in houses and slowly got rich. After my parents grew up, my grandparents thought overseas degrees would help them with more job opportunities. Therefore, my parents pursued further study in the United States, and this also caused me to be born in Chicago. The opening-up policy positively fulfilled my family with complicated experiences.

        However, these different experiences made a deep gap between generations of my grandparents and me. Three years ago, I was admitted to high school in China, and there was a tremendous burden to study. It sometimes takes me six to seven hours a day finishing my homework, which left me little time to relax. From my perspective, many extra assignments in school were too useless because they could only make me a study machine. For example, students spent much time doing repetitive exercises and couldn’t explore their own interests. At that moment, I thought I could change my study path in the United States as my parents, but my grandparents said," absolutely no.”  They educated me through their past experiences between different times and told me that China has been getting stronger. In their words, achieving overseas degree became “a worthless investment”, and they also thought I was escaping high school. However, I wanted to broaden my horizons and gain more opportunities for my future life.

China is changing so fast that these conflicts due to different generations and ages happen normally in my family, yet it also damaged our relationship. Although the opening-up policy changed my family's life and created differences between generations, it has also helped shape my personality. Even though my grandparents and I have different opinions, I've learnt to look at things from various angles before making a decision. Their ideas are not totally wrong. They are more thoughtful than me, but I also have my own ideas about my future. I can integrate their ideas into mine while still making my own decisions based on my goals. This helps me learn from their experiences without giving up my dream. Time goes fast like a river, and it forces people to be separated. I will certainly have my own unique experiences in my life, different from my parents and my grandparents. I have come to the United States now, but it doesn't mean my decision was right. There's no single choice for life.