
USA Power-lifting Junior World's!
Hello everyone!
I am fundraising for my trip to Prague, Czech Republic to once again, compete on Team U.S.A. The goal would be to raise around 2,000 dollars to help me pay for my airplane ticket and a few extra fees here and there.
All my life I have always been told to quit doing things I love to do, and focus on what "other" people thought I should do. As a younger person with no experience, I followed what I was told, and did what everyone else did and not persue my passions, but persued a possible high figure paying job. Years later with some life circumstances that happened, I decided, what the hell right? I am already living in pain, might as well do something that I love right? And from that moment on, it changed my life forever.
Now looking back 10 years ago, I have come a long way and there are some things I want to change. In my 10th grade year, I did research on my Hmong culture (I hated being Hmong during this time, but it was an opportunity to get an A so I did) in my A.P. U.S. History class and one of the books I read was called, "The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down". In this book they talked about how when the first hmong woman gave birth in a hospital something strange happened. The strange thing that happened was that nothing happened. She gave birth and she didn't make a single noise which surprised the doctors and nurses. According to him, giving birth is ranked as the 2nd most painful pains that anyone in this world can feel, but to the hmong woman giving birth, she took it like a champ. Now think back. If this was the women, imagine how hard-core the men were when they decided to list in the secret army of the United States of America and faught along side the Americans during the Vietnam War? And then the level of discipline and hardwork they had when they were forced to move into a new land in which they didn't have any knowledge of, unable to speak their tongue and unable to provide for their families, and yet they did.
This is what I call the Hmong Samurai Spirit or now I have come to adopt, "Siab Tawv", which pratically means hard heart in Hmong. Fast forward to what is going on now in the Hmong society. Hmong people now a days hate being hmong, some can't speak hmong, some don't show up during family meetings or help out during times of need, some hmong people disclaim their culture, and worse, we are racist against our own people. Why is it that some (if not all) Hmong tournments where we compete in various sports or activities, the teams that enter has to be a high percentage of hmong people? We do also invite other races around the world to come and enjoy our festivals, but their skill level is already too high based off of their skin color or race. I have heard arguments ranging from: We aren't as tall and strong; We aren't as talented; If we let other races join our hmong only teams won't have a chance. Now if you think about this, and a lot of hmong people also continue to go support these tournments, we as hmong athletes and the younger generation has accepted the fact that the Hmong people are inferior to other races, which is why old hmong people always bow their heads to "White" or "black" people even if they did something wrong against them but will do all their powers to make sure a hmong brother suffers for the rest of his life if they did the same thing.
My point is not to hate because reguardless if a hmong brother or sister decides to hate on the hmong culture or if someone has a certain belief based off of the way they lived, it doesn't change the fact that they are still Hmong. It isn't what they are trying to be, it is what they are. My point is however, whatever happened to the hmong samurai spirit or us being "Siab Tawv" like those who served in the war? Our past generations did not sacrafice their lives for us to be weak or to bow our heads down to other people and disrespect our culture. They died, so that we can continue to live on and now that we live a little too good in America, we begin to forget who we really are, when the Hmong culture itself is so beautiful. I want to pass on this term to anyone who is willing to work towards something greater than what is expected of them. I want to bring back "Siab Tawv" and show people that it doesn't matter what your skin color is or what you have going on in your life now. As a Hmong-American and as a Hmong-Athlete, I want to show everyone in the world and most importantly, I want to show us, that we are capable of great things and we shouldn't put a ceiling on our heads like we were made to believe. Chase your dreams and make it happen and never let anyone tell you, you can't do something. Even if that person is yourself.
My Journey to Czech Republic 2015
My competition