Shedding a Tear

Having a couple of days off and building up the adventures to the awesome fireworks on the 4th has been amazing. Spending my weekend in Duluth, MN, I saw and realized a lot of things. People everywhere were in a very good mood and everyone was just so happy. This feeling that I was getting reminded me of how proud I am to be an American. There have been many things happening that has been hurting how I felt, about who I am and as an American. Being Asian American, a person of color, there were times when I felt like I did not belong, even though I was born in this country. I have many hopes for my country because I know it’s an amazing place. Times are hard but on the 4th of July, looking around and enjoying everyones’ smile and laughter, it made me feel at peace and very thankful.

            Happy and thankful, I remember why people love this place. The freedom and opportunities we can get here, it gives people hope. Despite all that has been happening, everyone still got together to celebrate Independence Day in America. The multiple fairs across the country just shows how much we all do love this place.

As fire works fly across the skies of America,

we watched in awe, as I shed a tear.

Does Your Loved One Have Depression?


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The article, Why Asian-American Seniors Have High Rates Of Depression But Rarely Seek Help,” written by Kimberly Yam has great detail showing culture differences and how it affects the daily lives of many. I loved how this article was able to snap a reminder into my head about my parents and grandparents. I will be restating some of the things from the article and giving my opinion on the topic.

In the Asian-American community, health is one of the biggest topics that become touchy to talk about, especially with the seniors. Overall health problems are not usually brought up unless one is really needing help; but with mental health many seniors do not seek help for it at all. According to the American Psychological Association, “Asian Americans are almost three times less likely than their white counterparts to seek mental health services.” One of the main factors to this is fear of being shameful. With the Asian culture, pride is very important and that is why some things may not be said or done in order to not “embarrass” the family.

We have to remember that most of our elders have experienced trauma from many of the world and life tragedies that has happened. Adapting to a new place and experiencing the feeling of being separated because of culture and language can have a huge influence on how one may feel. Our seniors/elders in the Asian community may hide their feelings of sadness and loneliness in order to avoid burdening the family. With this, the younger generation of sons, daughters, relatives…etc., should reach out when they feel that there may be some kind of loneliness.

When reading this article, I started thinking about my grandfather. When he was still on this beautiful planet, I met him once when he came to visit my family from Laos. He was one of the sweetest people I have ever met. He smiled a lot and didn’t talk about things much. When we went for walks, he seemed so peaceful. He always stared at the sky and just looked and admired the landscape. Thinking back now, I wish I spent more time showing him many beautiful things in life. I also wish I talked to him more about his past, present, wishes, happiness, and sorrows. Just thinking about how he was when he had visit made me realize that he had a lot of sadness and pain still in him. This realization definitely made think more about checking on my loved ones.

Loneliness and depression can happen to anyone. It may be harder for some to express the fact that they have these feelings. In the Asian culture, admitting that you need help isn’t really a thing. Elders may probably address mental health issues in different ways, like headaches, sleepless nights, pain in the stomach…etc. So it is important for loved ones to ask and spend the time to really try and help.

I am Asian American and when I was reading this article, the descriptions and beliefs about the Asian American culture definitely fit mine. My thoughts and culture may not fit every persons’ but overall, being able to fit and connect to these descriptions and beliefs made me more aware of possible emotions and thoughts my elders may be having. Mental illness is not thought about a lot at all in the Asian community. I hope that my brief article will inspire you to just really look after your loved ones also and remember to be aware of possible symptoms of depression or loneliness.

Read the article by Kimberly Yam at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/asian-american-senior-mental-health_us_591c53eee4b041db8965c58e
This article is definitely worth putting time into reading. I loved everything about it.

Remembering Where We Came From

ChildrenAroundtheWorld

www.digitween12-2.flatclassroomproject.org

Many of us came from our parents and our parents came from their parents and so on. Everyone must’ve came from somewhere in the world to get to the place that they are now. As time passes on, we can forget our cultural roots and traditions that has faded due to many reasons. Such as assimilation, none to very little exposure to our own cultural heritage, or/and untold/forgotten stories, values, folktales, and traditions.

Thankfully, we have many resources nowadays if we want to learn where our ancestors come from, where they live, and such. But the real reason why it’s important to know your own cultural background is because it has to do with your identity. It is about learning more about your ancestors and understanding that as an individual, you and everyone else all connect somehow and are a part of a bigger world.

For example, the struggles of our ancestors directly impacts us how we may live life or make decisions today because we learn from our right and wrong choices. Idealistically, people like to become more advanced/better over time and without our ancestors going through the challenges that we didn’t have to, our present lives was made easier by little factors.

Some people in your life like your parents, grandparents, and elderly relatives had to go through hard times to provide for their families and themselves. Whether it was giving up their own education to find a job, leaving their home country to emigrate to a different country, sacrificing their time to invest in their offspring, and shedding blood, sweat, and tears for the sake that everyone present today has a better life and more opportunities.

Also, it is thanks to our ancestors that today the world have so many different kinds of ethnic groups, languages, religions, civilizations, and intellectual knowledge about life, space, animals, and more. Our ancestors made some impact in the future where we can arguably say that we do live in a better world in some aspects.

 

Important Proverbs We Should All Live By

According to www.yourdictionary.com/proverb, “the definition of a proverb is a short saying that is widely used to express an obvious truth”.

So why exactly are proverbs important to know? Well, they influence the way people interact with one another and the way we could perceive different situations. Often, they teach us important values in terms of respect, acceptance, love, responsibility, and more. Proverbs can teach us different aspects of many cultures and give us insights how people used to thought in the past. So here is a collection of proverbs from all kinds of cultures!

1. Korea : “A picture of a rice cake.”

In the Korean culture, rice cakes are loved by many people. If there’s only a picture of rice cakes, they can’t literally eat it. So the meaning behind this proverb is that you shouldn’t develop a desire that you cannot have.

2. China: “Do not do to others what you don’t want done to yourself.”

In Chinese cultures, there is an important emphasize of being a good nature person. That means that you wouldn’t want to do anything that would disrespect, harm, or possibly affect someone in a negative way because you wouldn’t want them to happen to you too. So treat people like how you want to be treated.

3. Vietnamese: “Ghosts have no pity on the sickly. Robbers have no pity for the poor.”

Life is about experiencing ups and down. It won’t be a smooth sail and expect to have good and bad situations because you can’t predict the uncertainly of what life may offer  you.

4. Thai: “As diligent as an ant.”

Thai people can see how little ants are and recognize that they work very hard. That is why even if it is hard work, be determined to carry out your responsibility.

5. Japan: “If you do not enter the tiger’s cave, you will not catch its cub.”

You can’ expect life to give you everything. Sometimes, it is up to you to take the initial step. So if you don’t risk trying, you will not get what you want.

6. Filipino: “A monkey dressed up is still a monkey.”

You can change your outer appearances and what you wear, but you are still who you are. It takes more than that to change yourself.