Scenario 2 of draft

I was sitting on a bench quietly with my parents in the Hong Kong international airport. It was noisy and crowded as usual. Passengers were waiting in lines in front of check in counters everywhere. But it was such a quiet airport that I felt for the first time, and I felt like there were only three of us in it. I didn`t move my eyes away from my parents despite people were walking hurriedly before us. It still got two hours before my boarding to the United States, and I would rather wait until the last minutes to check in honestly because the time I could spend with my parents was less and less. I think she was fine when I looked into my mom`s eyes with holding her hands. I couldn`t felt any sorrow of her at my leaving for a foreign country; she was garrulous as her used to be, “check all the documents you need once again before your boarding.” “I did it just now, mom.” “Did you let your friends know when do you arrive so that they can pick you up on time?” “I think so, you saw me sending an email to one of them yesterday.” “Son, I think you are carrying too much cash in one pocket. Can you put your change in the wallet so that you can separate it and the big bills?” “Fine, I will do it in a minute.”

I was thinking to stop her from reminding me those trivial things, but I shouldn`t. At that moment, I understood my mom better than any time ever in my childhood. She knew that I will live apart from my family for more than a year, we can`t see and talk to each other face to face for a long time. She seized the last chance of talking to her son as much as she could. She was doing what a mom can do before her son take off, and I didn`t intend to interrupt her. Dad listened to us quietly, and I noticed that he had been keeping silence for a while. I would like him to talk to me in an emotional way as my mom did. But he left the opportunity to her. I think I should say something to him, but my mind went blank.

I started recalling the talks in mind, which were between my dad and me in the last couple months before my leaving. Some of them with unhappy endings because I didn`t pay attention to what he was talking about. In other words, I didn`t feel comfortable with his pieces of advice for me about ways of living in a foreign country. I couldn`t wait to start my new life in America since the day I had received the visa. I freaked out because I was looking forward to live independently even though not financially. I was also trying to imagine how wonderful the life it is outside of my country.

My dad tried to prevent me from thinking living abroad is easy by telling me stories about Chinese immigrants. He witnessed they were struggling in foreign countries whatever they did in the first few years. Getting over the difficulties of language and culture shock are not as easy as I think. He requested me to learn cooking for two reasons, eating at home can be very economically; the second one is Chinese food can prevent me from homesickness. “Come on, fast food restaurants can be found everywhere in China. They are not bad, right? Try to think about this dad, the money I can spend on food is no big deal compared with the tuition. You are not really care about it.” I swore to prove he is holding a wrong opinion. I didn`t think his points of view are persuasive enough for me as a result of he has never lived in a foreign country before. I told to my dad, “you have no idea about America as well. Those people who have immigrated in early phases have completely different situation with me. How about let go? We will see.”