St. Petersburg High School 1991 Yearbook (St. Petersburg, FL) - Full Access

Who Am I? (A Bacterium on the Edge) I am standing in the middle of a vast ocean of people. They are staring at me. I do not know whether I should be embarrassed or scared. I cannot move ; I will not move. I am frozen stiff, and my eyes just stare back at them. I am insecure , a nd I wonder what is wrong with me . They say I'm different ; I do not know why. People call me an outsider; Though the y surround me and trap me inside their circle. I feel like they are the bacteria and I am the penicillin , All alone with a ring of emptiness surrounding me. But why? I am only human ; I am only being myself. Can being yourself make you strange? Can it make you the oddball of the group? They say bacteria multiply rapidly . Is that how they do it? They put on a show so they can fit in with the crowd ? That crowd seems to have no end! Maybe ... They do not know themselves , or maybe ... I do not know myself. Who am I? -Sara Wides And Then I Became Me In Saigon, Vietnam , a little girl named Huynh Thi Phuong Anh played in the rubble and the debris , where a building used to be. Just hours before , she and her family were hud– dled in the basement of a nearby hospital. Sh e heard the wails of the wounded and their cries of despair . Yet the planes flew on to the next des– tination. So yol,lng Phuong Anh rummaged through the ruin for salvageable materials, as normal chil– dren did , to forget the con– fusion of a world gone cha– otic . Later, Be Ahn , as her family called her , was bombarded with desper– ate cries. This time, no amount of child's play could distance her from the despair of her family , her countrymen . And this time , the five-year-old girl recognized the shortage of food, medical care, and aid in the refugee camps . So Phuong Anh prayed and waited, and learned English on the islands of Indonesia, as other South- During her adjustment to America. the Vietnam– ese girl changed and de– veloped. This school-aged youth thought it easier to adopt an American name, Ann , and to take advan– tage of the many oppor tunities offered her in ed– ucation , in community service , and in challenging her abilities. It seemed easier , perhaps , to enjoy the bounty of America and to be a part of that coun try. But reminders of her Vietnamese heritage and memories of those left be– hind in despair have re– solved this woman to pur sue a career in medicine. So now, Ann Hu ynh plans to give back to those who have given to her, the American people , an hopes to provide for those who are like her, the ref ugees of the world . Again, let me introduce myself, am Ann Huynh .. . Amer ican and Vietnamese. But more important than how became Ann Hu ynh is what she plans to make of herself: a doctor, to doctor those in such desperate east Asian youngsters did need . in hopes of resettlement in -Ann Huynh the United States.