I went to my friends the other day because I was feeling low. They are friends from home but I didn’t know them before I live in the UK. They have been there for me through thick and thin. Although our connection started because my parent knows their uncle. It has been a great pleasure to know them and to have them in my life. They are true friends I really need. And I tell myself every day I need to do everything and anything to protect them and be there for them when they need. Because what they have done for me cannot be described in words – it’s just very meaningful.

I remember being in a different country for more than 10 years. My Vietnamese has started to decrease a little bit. I can’t maintain a full mother tongue convo with my parents without having to ask my brother to translate for me because I just couldn’t think of the word in Vietnamese, or even the whole sentence. This made me realise I can’t keep continuing to forget my own mother tongue. It is pathetic. I need to do something about it.

The two dear friends who I know through my parent, were the ones that helped me with this. They might not realise it but they did.

They’ve lived in Vietnam for a much longer time than I have. I came to the UK when I was 17. That was young. They came a bit later and they have more connections at home as friends than I do – which is a good thing. They speak much more fluent Vietnamese than I do. Some vocabularies they use and when I heard them, I realised how much I have forgotten about my own language.

I don’t like to use constant English while I speak Vietnamese. I see that as a weakness. I need to be better. I have to respect my own country and my own culture in order to promote and be proud of where I belong and where I came from.

So, I always feel so comfortable and feel like I always learn something new (maybe something I knew but forgot) when I’m with them. It’s also healing in a way because I know my culture is based on community values – we help each other out, onwards and upwards. And I believe that is always a good thing. That has been along side with me after all these years of being in the UK. And this actually has helped to learn more about myself and my values – I like making meaningful connections with people and I always strive to make that bigger, and create more values for them – only if they want me to.

I know that these friends of mine don’t fully understand or might not be interested in the things I do. But they are very intelligent, they do care and they care a lot. It makes such difference to a lot of people around me because I know they are special, in their own way. I will love them till the rest of my life. Whenever I feel down, I know I can always give them a call and they will say “why don’t you just come over love?”. Isn’t that heartwarming?

I know these people will always be there when I need them. I will try my best and do everything in my power too to be there for them. I can never let them down. Not even one bit.

I am very grateful for not only them, but to all my other friends, people that I have had a chance with and to have crossed path in life. I can always learn something from them. And it heals my soul so much to know I still have good people and people who care about me in my life. It’s not that I got no one. I might be far away from my family. But I’m still close to the network that I will treasure for the rest of my life.

So, god forbid if anything ever happens, I need to do everything now, in the moment, and not let it slip for way too long and I will forever regret about it. That’s one thing I have learned about friendship, and pretty much in any relationships in life. Act now or never.