Different Lifestyles

Oral History Project

Different Lifestyles

By: Ka Zoua Vang

My name is Ka Zoua Vang and I’m a senior. I’m 18 years old and I am a Hmong student from D.C. Everest Senior High School. I live with my family, which consists of twelve people. My father, mother, two older sisters, five younger sisters, and two younger brothers. Yes, I am the third oldest. With my oldest sister being married, and my second oldest sister going off to college this fall, I will be the oldest in the house. I will be pressured to be responsible and

Life being a Hmong girl is not as easy as it may seem. People might look at us and be like, “They’re girls, they don’t know much and all they’re ever going to do is be stay at home moms. They can never be someone important in life.” A lot of Hmong stereotype the females because back in Laos, the female went to the garden, cooked, watched the kids and do chores around the house. They did nothing really manly. Now days, Hmong females living in America have changed for the better. They have better jobs, have more rights and decisions in their life, and the marriage ways are still similar to the ones in Laos.

Mee Moua, have you heard of that name before? She’s the first Hmong Senator in the United States. As I have said before, females are advancing. “Believing that you will succeed is the only way to succeeding.” That quote has made me change the way I do things. I have changed to succeed in life. I have goals and I plan to accomplish them. Nothing is ever going to change the way I think and act. Many might have something that they believe in, but peer pressure is changing the way they think. They might go along with the crowd to feel cool. An example is the gangs in the Wausau area. If you are in a gang, you have to do what the others do or else you are different and they look down on you. They will treat you like you do not know anything. You might not want to look that way. I know how it is; everyone wants to be a part of something.

In my life, I have always tried so hard to be like everyone else, go out with some friends and have fun. I would argue with my parents just so I could go out with my friends, but usually I would storm out of the house. However, the older I got, the wiser I became. I accepted me for who I am and I do not try anymore. I do not care what others think. If they do not like me for who I am, tough, it is their lost, not mine.

In life, I have gone through many friends, the only true friends are the ones who are still with me. Many friends leave me to join a gang or to go into another “group” because they wanted to fit in with the “cool” people. It’s true, that I might not be cool, but I try my best at everything and I do what I want. Not what others want me to do. Everything doesn’t seem like what it looks like. I mean, you cannot just judge someone by his/her cover, you have to get to know him/her. Then you will see their true personality. Back to the story with my friends, they will leave and later come back because they people they went to hang out with are not who they thought they would be. Have you heard the quote, “What goes around , must come around.” If you treat someone bad, you will get it done back on you.

I personally believe that everyone has more rights these days, the whites, African-Americans, Hmong, Hispanics and many others. There are more rights since my parents came because it was still the early ‘80s when they came.