Poems by Toquyen Harrell

I was originally from Vietnam.  The oldest child of eight kids (4 boys and 4 girls), I came to the U.S. when I was 15 years old.  I taught myself English by reading children's books (with pictures and 1 or 2 sentences on the bottom of page and), a grammar book, and a Vietnamesse-English dictionary as I thought ESL class was teaching too slow.  Anyway, we came as boat people and landed in Indonesia.  We stayed there for almost a year waiting for the paperwork to process.  I was a teen then and was having a time of my life -swimming in the ocean and lived in a hut that was built by the Indonesian natives right next to the beach.  The natives were so nice.  I remembered thinking I wanted to be in the U.S. right there and then.  I wish I wasn't too eager to leave because it was paradise.  You can smell the ocean air and hear the ocean waves at night.  The sound of it is still ringing in my ears.  Our uncle sponsored us.  I started Jr. high in the 9th grade and did not know a single word of English but I mastered the math haha.  Thought that was so easy.  I went on to high school then college and graduated.  I have a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration - Management.  I thought I could boss everyone around so that's why that major haha.  Anyway, had no idea what I wanted to do.  I ended up to be a social worker for a State Agency.  I still am for the last 18 years.  But God had a different idea.  One day, my roommate asked me "do you want to get a MSW (Master of Social Work)?  I thought to myself "yeah, I want to go back to school but I don't want to get a MSW" and felt a sudden desire to go back to school at the same time.  Prior to this, this same roommate has been in and out of ER as she has medical problems and I was always the one who took her to the ER.  I remembered sitting in the ER and was asking God "why I like this place so much".  God did not answer me at the time.  Anyway, later when this roommate was asking me if I wanted to go back to school, I told her "I want to be a doctor".  I did not know what I should specialize in but when my beautician asked me "so what do you want to specialize in", suddenly I had the vision of the ER in my head and I told her "I want to specialize in emergency medicine".  So that is my story.  I enrolled in school and taking pre-med classes at the local university.  I finished with pre-med courses in May 2014.  I am getting ready to take the MCAT test in November - November 7th to be exact.  So there -you have it!  Anything else you want to know?  No, I don't have children.  Yes, I had married before and am a widow.  It had been 17 years ago.  God has given me peace and everything else that one can dream of.  I have so much to thank God for.  I would never thank Him enough.  Reading my poetry from the beginning you will see how God was working on me as I only write things that are real,, what I experienced, or what God wants me to write.  I hope that my poetry will encourage you to live in the way God wants you to live.  I think I have said enough.  I will stop for now.  Love you all.  My motto: Have the best and be the best.  YEYY.  Kick butt, will ya :)