Family picture and found pieces

(Baonghean) -A few years ago, studying abroad was still a trend, a dream prospect, but now, parents and students have a clearer understanding of the nature, conditions, benefits and difficulties of studying abroad. Summer is coming, when many international students "parachute" home to visit, in their suitcases are gifts for family, friends and also memories, love, joys and sorrows of studying abroad...

“A day's journey...crying a basket of tears”

Many international students, especially female students, half-jokingly and half-seriously share that fish sauce and rice tears are the main dishes in the first days of arriving in a foreign land. This is an especially difficult time for all international students, when leaving the caring arms of their families to face many aspects of life. From renting a house, doing paperwork, opening a bank account, buying insurance to cooking, shopping or even how to resolve conflicts in relationships with people around them, everything is new to young people who have just left their "corner of the yard and the sky". Faced with such strange and overwhelming pressures, it is inevitable that there will be moments of weakness, silent tears, or even regretful self-questioning: Have we gone too far from the protective arms of our loved ones?

This heartbreaking question never ceases to haunt the hearts of those studying abroad, especially during traditional holidays such as Lunar New Year, a Vietnamese holiday of reunion. On this holiday, social media pages of overseas students post photos of them wrapping banh chung together and welcoming the New Year to ease their homesickness. In the warm atmosphere of compatriots and friends, there are still some heartbreaking tears and heartfelt confessions of longing sent to a distant land: “This spring I won’t be back.”

International students in Paris wrap banh chung to celebrate Tet.

The "rear" feelings

Ms. Pham Thi Thu Suong (Con Cuong) has two sons who both studied abroad in France (one from 2006-2012, the other from 2009). There is not a week that she does not call her sons, asking about their eating, studying, work, and even about their... love life. Knowing that his mother is a worrier, one time while playing soccer, her eldest son was injured and broke his left arm. It was not until he returned to work in Vietnam that Ms. Suong found out about the incident. She blamed her son with tears in her eyes, holding his hand and refusing to let go. This is the common mentality of parents, how can one not feel heartbroken when seeing their beloved child alone in a foreign land, when sick with no one to take care of them.

There are also "families" of international students whose young fathers and mothers have to manage everything alone from beginning to end, without the care of their paternal and maternal families like couples in Vietnam. Ms. Dang Thi Bich (Vinh City) sadly recalls that in 2009, when her daughter gave birth to her first child in France, she put her job aside to take care of her child, but because of paperwork problems, she had to stay in Vietnam, only knowing how to call and chat to encourage the two children. In 2012, her daughter gave birth to her second child, fortunately this time the mother-in-law was granted a visa to visit relatives, visit her grandchild and take care of her daughter-in-law. Looking at the picture of her now grown-up grandchild, smiling brightly next to her grandmother, Ms. Bich also somewhat eased her longing for her grandchild and child, but could not help but feel sad that she could not be with her daughter when she needed her most.

There are so many fathers and mothers who, although living in Vietnam, have hearts that beat in a distant time zone, regularly waking up every day, every week or every month in the middle of the night to call their children, asking about the smallest things, then sobbing silently when the phone calls back with the sound of cold wind, subway trains and a strange language that seems to drown out the dear voice of their beloved child...

The Complete Picture

Only when you travel far away do you appreciate the things that used to be familiar. If on the day of departure, international students are all eager and excited to leave the arms of their families and fly freely to a new land, then after traveling around the world, they will know that family is the starting point and also the destination for each person's journey. Or at least, family is the most solid and safe support for us to rest peacefully before continuing on the path of life. Dang Tien Cuong (24 years old, Vinh City) - an international student majoring in Computer Science in Korea, who has just achieved excellent results with his graduation project on "Applying machine learning in fast typing Vietnamese", said: "After graduating, I plan to return to Vietnam to live and work. Only in my homeland can the achievements I have achieved have practical meaning and be honored and recognized. Moreover, I want to be with the people I love."

This is also the thought of many international students all over the world, with the desire to return to build their homeland and live in the love of family and friends. Living in the loving arms of family, doing small but very dear things for the people they love is enough for international students to feel the connection between them and this land is never interrupted, so that they know that they are missing but not lost pieces of the family picture. That picture, always faithfully waiting for the pieces to return.

Article and photos: Hai Trieu