From Vung Tau To Washington Poem by Natasa To

From Vũng Tàu to Washington

I left Vũng Tàu with the ocean at my back,
salt in the wind,
and a thousand memories
folded quietly into my heart.

The waves knew my name there—
they had carried my childhood dreams,
watched the sun fall beyond the horizon,
and whispered, there is more beyond this shore.

So I followed the road
farther than I had ever imagined,
across skies, across time,
across an ocean that seemed
to hold an entire lifetime between its waves.

I carried Vũng Tàu with me—
in the sound of Vietnamese spoken softly,
in the taste of familiar food,
in the faces I remembered,
in the lessons of home
that distance could never erase.

Then came Washington, D.C.—
a city of monuments and motion,
of winter mornings and unfamiliar streets,
where every corner seemed to ask:

Who will you become here?

I learned that starting over
is not the same as starting from nothing.
I brought my courage with me.
I brought my past.
I brought every person
who had ever believed in me.

Between Vũng Tàu and Washington
there was an ocean,
but also a bridge—
built from hope,
sacrifice,
faith,
and the stubborn decision
to keep moving forward.

And now, when I look back,
I see two shores
instead of one.

One gave me roots.
The other gave me room to grow.

Vũng Tàu will always be
the place where my story began.

Washington is simply
where the next chapter
learned to breathe.

And somewhere between
the blue waters of home
and the lights of this new city,
I became someone
my younger self
could only dream of becoming.