Allayah Phan, Sacramento, California
“I am 9 years old, and I am an only child. I like it, but I would like to have a little brother or sister. It can get lonely sometimes. When my friends come to visit me, we play house, we pretend, or we ride our bikes. Riding my bike makes me happy. Before I became sick, I liked going to the temple on Saturdays. At the temple we learn Vietnamese, we do arts and crafts, and we play. I have a lot of friends there. My friends are good friends, they always help me and do anything for me. Friends don’t turn on each other’s backs, and they care for each other.”
“When I am older, I want to do something with fashion. I like designing clothes. My dream is to be a fashion designer in Paris, but I am open, I haven’t decided yet. Right now I like reading chapter books. The last book I read had 400 pages. It was about this boy August Pullman who had 27 surgeries, and he had been home-schooled. But now he is starting 5th grade in a new school, and he wonders how people will treat him, because he looks different. It was both funny and sad.”
“The most difficult thing in my life right now are the hospital visits. We always have to go to the hospital, and sometimes I have to get admitted. When people are busy, I have to be alone in the hospital. I am fine being alone, but it’s hard, because everybody has work to do. Sometimes they have to poke me, and it hurts. And sometimes when there is a lot of stress, and they have to poke me, I cry all the stress out too. My doctors are very important to me because they are trying to help me, and at the same time they try to help other people.”
“The greatest thing about my life is that I have a family that cares about me and loves me, and I have friends that are really close to me. They tell me that they love me, and they show it. They make food for me, and they help me when I need help.”
“Love is when you really, really care about somebody and you want them to be happy. You show love in different ways, you can cook for somebody, you can tell them, or you could buy them a gift. And you can receive love by giving love.”
“I want everyone to be happy, nice and smart. Some people are not smart in the world. Some people don’t know how to drive, they drive crazy, some people shoot people to get something, some people set places on fire. It’s crazy. I want world peace. War is bad, people die for no reason. Some people like war, because they want revenge. But revenge hurts people, and I don’t like hurting other people.”
“The Buddha is good because he doesn’t want any animals or anybody else to get hurt. He didn’t eat meat. But I can’t do that, I like eating meat. I do eat Vegetarian sometimes with my grandma.”
“When I get upset, I don’t really do anything. I just keep it to myself. I try not to show it, but if I do, I just have a little attitude. I won’t be super mean, because it’s not nice to be mean. I usually just forget about it.”