Essay On Marine Corps Journey
The route I have taken after high school has definitely been the path less traveled. I enlisted into the United States Marine Corps after graduating high school to serve the country that welcomed me in with open arms as a refugee, and blessed me so much with freedoms and opportunities that I would have never obtained in Tibet or India. During my years in the Corps, I received the opportunity to travel the World, lead Marines, and make a difference. The Marine Corps has definitely been a steppingstone because it has rewarded me with a broader perspective of the World, military discipline and bearing, and many other intangible traits I plan to instill throughout my life. Also during my service, I gained very unconventional experiences that were
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Even though I knew I was a Tibetan, I never knew where “home” was. These questions of my identity and home would arise time and time throughout my life. As a young boy, my parents would always remind me that I was a Tibetan and that one day we will return back to Tibet. To me, Tibet was a place where my grandparents had left and my parents had never seen. Here I was, in a land of foreigners, yet it was the land I called home because my grandparents had left their Tibet when the Chinese Communists had taken over. The idea of Tibet being home was so surreal and foreign to me because I had never laid my eye on the snowcapped mountains of Tibet or inhaled the fresh air of the Himalayas. My whole life I have yearned for that feeling of calling one place as my “home”. I have lived in India, Okinawa, Chicago, Minneapolis and on a boat. I have even served in the Marine Corps for 4 years to understand what it means to be an American. What I found out was that there is no one feeling or moment but a synthesis of everything. Today, I have to come realize that my upbringing as a Tibetan refugee has truly been a blessing in disguise; losing my motherland to China, living in exile in India, and finding a second home in the United States has forged me into an optimistic, faithful citizen of the world. My experiences have undoubtedly strengthened my sense of belonging to something bigger and better, the
Even though I knew I was a Tibetan, I never knew where “home” was. These questions of my identity and home would arise time and time throughout my life. As a young boy, my parents would always remind me that I was a Tibetan and that one day we will return back to Tibet. To me, Tibet was a place where my grandparents had left and my parents had never seen. Here I was, in a land of foreigners, yet it was the land I called home because my grandparents had left their Tibet when the Chinese Communists had taken over. The idea of Tibet being home was so surreal and foreign to me because I had never laid my eye on the snowcapped mountains of Tibet or inhaled the fresh air of the Himalayas. My whole life I have yearned for that feeling of calling one place as my “home”. I have lived in India, Okinawa, Chicago, Minneapolis and on a boat. I have even served in the Marine Corps for 4 years to understand what it means to be an American. What I found out was that there is no one feeling or moment but a synthesis of everything. Today, I have to come realize that my upbringing as a Tibetan refugee has truly been a blessing in disguise; losing my motherland to China, living in exile in India, and finding a second home in the United States has forged me into an optimistic, faithful citizen of the world. My experiences have undoubtedly strengthened my sense of belonging to something bigger and better, the