Ninh Binh the land that taught me love.

Contest Entry Code: ab0e4acada934eb2865a8ed5903a941e

Unit: Individual

Place of creation: Hamlet 7, Xã Khánh Hội, Ninh Bình, Việt Nam

My childhood was associated with a thatched house with mud walls, where on stormy nights, family was everything. Every time a storm came, I saw my parents, each of them hugging a pillar to support the house for fear of it collapsing. My three brothers and I were put in a basket, covered with raincoats and pushed under the bed, that was the safest place. After the storm, there was a flood, my parents' feet were eaten by the water, both painful and itchy. My three brothers and I were placed on a high table in the middle of the house, surrounded by water and all day the only thing we had to do was chase the ducks away from pecking at the house walls. At that time, in my childish soul, a dream was kindled: "If I were Mi Nuong, daughter of the eighteenth Hung King, I would marry Thuy Tinh so that there would be no more storms, thunder, floods, my parents and the villagers would no longer have to suffer...". Now, as an adult, I know that dream does not need to come true. Not because the storms have stopped visiting, but because I have found a power greater than Thuy Tinh: that is the power of human love. No matter how strong the storms are, they cannot drown human love, in the midst of them they become even more connected, "when one horse is in pain, the whole stable stops eating." When I think back to those stormy days, I no longer feel pain but only happiness and pride. Happy because I had a protected childhood, grew up in love, and proud because the Lac Hong blood in my heart taught me how to turn storms into the power of human love.