I got asked this question a lot! And I’m pretty sure I will be for the next few days/weeks when I bump into people around Villanova. So, I am taking this time to reflect on it and come up with some cool answers.
First, here is a list of things that I did, in no particular order:
- Interned in EY Hoboken, NJ, which was just right across the river from New York
- Went to Disney World for the first time
- Hung out in New York every weekend (and still don’t love it)
- Came back to Vietnam for 2 weeks
- Went to my dad’s hometown in Hue and was at the beach for 2 days straight
- Ate so much of my mum’s delicious and uniquely Vietnamese food, including bún sườn dọc mùng, bún ngan, canh rau muống, cá thu sốt cà chua.
- Met up with my middle school and high school friends, teachers, and mentors
- Drove a car in Vietnamese street
- Saw my dad’s flower balcony/tea corner, which he especially made for me as my birthday gift, but they have been using it more than me so far
- Evacuated from the Airbnb due to bed bugs
- Ran a 5k with my senior @ EY
Second, how do I put all these together into a concise response?
…
I don’t know. Maybe I have to cherrypick every time? Instead of just saying I interned in EY and went to Vietnam for 2 weeks like I usually do, I could pick some more specific ones. For instance, I went back home for 2 weeks – ate mum’s home-cooked food that I couldn’t find in the US, or walked along the Hudson river many times after my work @ EY and even ran a 5k there with my senior.
I think that would really shake up the conversation and give people more details on my summer activities. Hopefully, it will a different answer than just the regular “I worked at X and went to Y,” which most people used to respond to the question “what did you do this summer?”!
Trang "Tee" Nguyen 