Day 1: Beginning

Note: I thought I would start the first of this 365 days writing project with the beginning of my life.

1991, the year I was born was the year Australia accepted my parents into the country. They spent the previous two years in an off-shore refugee centre in Malaysia. That year, my parents were placed in Hobart, the capital of the island state of Tasmania.

My mother didn't like Hobart. The place she stayed was much too cold, there was snow and having been born and raised in Vietnam, snow was incredibly much too cold. Hobart at the time was more remote than it is now. It took an hour for her to walk to the shops.

I was born in spring. Weighing less than a kilogram, I was so fragile, my mother thought that I wasn't going to survive my first winter there. So everyday, she held onto me desperately sharing her warmth, singing a lullaby.

She is the reason why I don't do stupid things to my body. Like tattoos, drugs, smoke or excessive drinking. My body is much too precious to damage.