But, in China, children listen to parents. You obey your parents; you honor your parents. That’s a very traditional value. You say yes to your parents. You do what they want you to do. I said yes, I would do it. My dad applied for schools here in America and I got accepted by Washington University in St. Louis. They helped me get ready for my trip and I cried several times before I le because I thought I was for sure going to my grave there. I just couldn’t imagine leaving them and going to a totally strange place.
I felt really insecure and very scared. I remember, however, I did not know at that time if there was for sure a God. I remember some dreams I had before I came. I dreamed myself—in one of the dreams, I dreamed myself swimming through the ocean and then I had two whales by my side. It was a very safe trip for me, there was nothing to scare me, and I had two giant whales on either side of me. Then I had another dream similar in nature right before I le China. I didn’t realize that God was trying to tell me it was going to be OK. On my flight to America, I met so many people that they helped me.
I mean, they’re like the angels God sent me. I found someone—not I found, but when I was in the airport lining up to check my luggage, this man standing next to me asking if this was the right line for him to checking. It turned out that he was going to sit next to me on the airplane. Then when we were waiting for the airplane to come and he came across another Chinese student who would also go to Wash U and he had exactly the same route as mine. The three of us sat together.
Somebody else came to me and said, hey I know you’re from Chengdu, I’m from there too. If you need any help, I’ll be happy to help you because I’ve been to America several times. Even though I was supposed to make this trip alone, all by myself, God sent angels to my side and they made sure everything worked out for me and I was here safely. Looking back, I realize that was God’s blessing. He saw how sad I was, how scared I was. He tried to tell me, it’s going to be OK; don’t be so afraid. I came to St. Louis in the summer of 1994. I just graduated from college and I came straight here for graduate school.