all right
good evening usc first off i just want to say how nice it is to have the first in-person
backyard ceremony in over three years it's so nice to be back it's so nice to be back
in person and see everyone's beautiful faces and have everything kind of back to normal
you know you know things are coming back to normal when usc raises their tuition again
it's only a five percent increase you know i said the same thing to my professor about my final
grade but they didn't see the increase as marginal as i did on that note i'd like to thank president
full and the universe university trustees for the honor and possibly the last time speaking here at
the baccalaureate ceremony for the class of 2022 i'd also like to thank the office of religious
and spiritual life and of course i'd like to thank dean sony for not only inviting me here today to
speak tonight but for being a profound professor and mentor these past four years when dean sony
first invited me to be speaker over two months ago i was honored below surprised i was raised
buddhist and was involved in many things here at usc but i wasn't the most involved in religion or
spirituality i also certainly didn't possess the most stoic or profound realizations of many my
peers who are part of religious and spiritual life but dean sony was sure of his decision and told me
his wise and prolific manner all i want to hear is your story and so to ask this huge honor and
responsibility i did what usc students do best i waited until last minute and prayed for a miracle
i guess the process was a little more religious than i thought
that is what i aim to do today tell my story to the graduating students parents and friends and
people who thought they would get some free food and they came to the ceremony
i was born into a family of bakers bummy saigon represent baguettes croissants egg rolls bun me
but they showed it was not bringing full carbs that made me very chubby as a kid
i saw my mom and dad not in suits when said covered in flour and sugar
running a business that would sustain my childhood joy and wonder it was a good childhood and every
sunday we would go to our local buddhist temple in little saigon orange county california and
pray to the buddha and to our descendants need some pretty good vegetarian food
that was the core of my faith in spirituality spending time with family breaking bread and
believing that good things would happen to us if we had faith and we're good people
but what happens when bad things horrible things happen to good people how do we have faith then
that's what i thought my older brother was diagnosed with schizophrenia
i saw my brother become a shell of his former self and i saw my parents
who have been so strong and resilient their entire lives fall apart from confusion and agony
and as my brother and parents navigated receiving help and knowledge about this illness
i watched too young to be of any help and too old to forget the trauma of
losing my old brother when my brother was in the psychiatrist's office i was in the waiting room
playing with old toys and figurines used my many past siblings navigating what it all meant for me
that meant confusion frustration and unfortunately a lot of anger i loved my brother but couldn't
understand what happened and i grew angry feeling powerless and succumbing to a fear of navigating
this new relationship with my family and brother when they came to our sunday dinners and visits
to the temple we would go through the same routines we would eat pray but for me things
felt different i wondered how we could pray and have faith and do good things when time
after time after time all we saw was suffering and as a result i began to not only lose faith
in my buddhist faith but also in the world i couldn't grapple with suffering the unfairness
of good people that i love suffering for no reason i lost faith i seek to fill this void with
other things school grades accomplishment success validation these external things made me very
successful on paper which is probably the reason i got in the usc i did the same thing when i came
here too i worked hard i sought the validation of success status intelligence through titles of
merit and accomplishment most people when they think of me they're quick to comment that i am
everywhere i do everything and everyone knows me but do you know the secret i had no idea what
i wanted i thought that they did these things i could make up for my brother's loss of opportunity
to attend college i felt that i could go to the college if i could go to college for both of us
and then maybe maybe then my parents would be okay it was if i do this and everything we find sort
of mentality that drove me is a path that can be exhausting all of this was because i had a loss of
faith in the world when we lose faith everything goes dark we lose our humanity and ourselves
and others we become selfish we forget that we were part of something bigger than ourselves
that's what i did and i felt so lost i succeeded over cheated said yes to every opportunity but i
still felt like a boat lost to sea continuing the endless journey to nowhere but the special part
about usc in college is that you can come in for all you can come in broken lost and
for all the wrong reasons but you're in the right place to change your mindset in life
i met amazing people at ufc good people people like dean sony a man of limitless zen listening
ability did something that i needed more than anything someone just to listen to my story
who helped me not find the answers but ask the right questions who am i what do i want how can
i find purpose in meaning how can i help my brother and my family simple questions
but those are the questions that we need to ask during these times of change in crisis
i tell this story as a reflection to some of our fears in the world these f these past four years
have been nothing short of apocalyptic so many things have changed we went from our classrooms
on campus to our childhood bedrooms on zoom back to our classrooms and then back into those little
rectangles on zoom once again and not only that we had a lot of personal changes as well
our relationships our studies and passions even our identities when we go through change
we find nothing but frustration suffering and despair it's easy to lose faith faith in our world
faith in our government faith in our university i know i have but we could go through life without
faith we'll continue to view the world and its challenges through the sole lens of ourselves
we do it all the time when we go on zoom the person we watch the most on camera is ourselves
we are all part of something but we are all part of something larger than ourselves
it's easy to lose sight of this in the world where individual excellence is valued overall
and we enter tomorrow in the real world with the credibility and prestige of a college degree
we must remember that this amazing accomplishment would not be possible about the world around us
with the people around you today it's not possible without the love of others
and that's why faith is so important in the words of david foster wallace we all worship something
so why not have faith in our love for each other my parents showed me this love in different ways
to me my father the hardest working and most determined person i know never lost faith in
himself and the ability to do better for not only himself but the family that he loved starting off
in this country as a chinese food waiter to opening countless bakeries across california
show me the faith show me the power of faith to carve your own path in life regardless of your
circumstances my mother showed me the faith in love there's something i've learned growing up
in the vietnamese immigrant household is that we do not say i love you enough it's all ganga
which means son have you eaten rice yet this is the universal question asked and asked the
immigrant children that said i love you in every way possible other than the actual words itself
but my mom showed this faith and love to everyone everyone that came into the bakery my mom would
feed no hesitation she taught me this power she taught me the power of this faith and love
a couple weeks ago when an older lady came into the bakery looking to pay her son was mentally
ill and homeless and he roamed the streets of huntington beach and frequented the bakery often
and every time my mom would make sure he was well fed and had someone to talk to so when this
older woman revealed herself to be the mother and offered to pay back for all the bunnies
and egg rolls and waters my mom gave my mom refused sharing her story and her faith in love
and ask that the only payment to be for this lady to come by every once in a while and say
hi and to love our own son and so while i was at usc searching and learning for all the answers
to the world the realization i've had is that all the lessons i needed to live a flourishing
life was right at home i was getting schooled every day of my parents i didn't even realize
so i challenged the class of 2022 to have faith faith in ourselves that we don't have to be okay
faith in ourselves that we can figure out together and faith in our love for each other
and with that note i want to say i love you to all of you i love you usc love you dean
sony i love you students i love you man i love you rihanna and board trustees i love you too
and to my brother vu win who's here today i love you so much you brought a lot of joy you
brought a lot of joy and love into my life i'm not here today without you and so the end of speech
with some faith and love i want everyone to yell from their heart to the person you love
everyone everyone i love you so on the count of three one two three i love you
class of 2022 bless you choose love and fight on
oh