I grimaced at the horrible sight of a fractured bone piercing skin in my mom’s leg. This image is engraved into my mind from vacation.

Before the end of eighth grade, my mom surprised my family, simply stating, “We’re going to Malaysia within the next week.”

“Why?” I was so perplexed to why this announcement was so random and sudden.

“That’s where dad and I grew up. It’ll be a great experience for you since you can see how privileged you are.” It turns out that my parents grew up in a poor and very dangerous country, but I was curious to see my relatives for the first time. However, I did not even know where it was, let alone did I want to go to some strange foreign country, but my mom was always the one to make decisions. I was sure I would regret it because I have always hated new things and am fearful of change.

After the combined twenty-hour flight from Boston to Hong Kong, we were on the other side of the world. I was extremely confused and perplexed yet thrilled by how different Asia was from America. There were cars driving on the opposite side of the road, people speaking different languages, a strange old woman in the bathroom wearing a hair net with a prong, different trees and grass, and everyone moving so quickly with such organized public transportation. Many of the people’s actions shocked me and possibly scarred me for life; my aunt and cousin took me to a night market and I witnessed them picking out a chicken. A man pointed to cages of chickens and asked them which one they would like. When my aunt indicated a fluffy yellow chicken, the man unlocked the cage, picked the chicken up by its legs, and dumped it into a cylindrical metal machine. Those piercing noises of the grinding metal and the chicken squawking while struggling for my help will always be stuck with me. Later, they served various animals parts for dinner such as cow tongue, cow gizzard, and the unlucky chicken, all of which I refused to eat. After this life-scarring scene in Hong Kong, my family was fortunate enough to experience much better impressions of Asia. We were like nomads on the go and visited four countries and twelve cities all in the course of five and a half weeks.

The day before we planned to visit my mom’s old house, we saw monkeys and fireflies in Kuala Selangor, a city near the coast of Malaysia, far from the capital, Kuala Lumpur. I was terrified of the monkeys who were stealing food from people and climbed on everything like cars, poles, and people, so I clung to my mom for support. After, we went to a firefly park where the only sources of light were the workers’ flashlights. The forty-five degree angle plastic ramp to the boat had metal bars in the middle. When I was carefully walking down, I heard a loud thump behind me and I saw my mom sprawled out on the ramp with a huge lump on her leg, screaming. Her left leg had slipped while her right leg had been hooked on the metal bar. My uncle and dad came to her aid while my aunt led my cousin, brother, and me back up the ramp to wait for my mom. To my surprise, I felt a slight wetness on my cheeks and even though everyone was staring at me, I did not care and pretty soon I was sobbing the most I had ever in my whole life for six hours. She is the most independent, impatient, and stubborn person I ever met and I had never seen her this much helpless before. Even though I knew that I should let the adults handle the problem, I felt as though I was to blame for not taking care of her and kept on trying to run down the ramp to see if she was okay. I believed I was guilty for the fact that she was in so much pain. At this point, visitors were still walking down the ramp to get to the boat, so my mom could feel the vibrations of every step they took. My dad was yelling for the people to not touch my mom’s leg, but there was a language barrier. Everything was so stressful that my dad had a short dispute with another man who thought that my dad was a hypocrite since he believed my dad touched my mom’s leg on purpose.

When the realization hit me, I was still sobbing over my independent mom being so weak and powerless. I ran down the ramp while experiencing its dangers by slipping a couple times myself before meeting again with my mom.

We finally met eye contact and I managed to mutter some nonsensical gibberish to my mom and everyone else. “Are you….you okay?” I sputtered. I definitely could not think straight during this time. I had always been dependent on my mom.

She was still stronger than me, even in these times. Through the pain, she croaked, “Go...go… just take care of your brother. Do it for me.” It was then that my brain working as if it was drowning in my tears finally registered the amount of responsibility I would have to hold.

The time spent waiting in the main office of the park with my aunt, cousin, and brother felt as long as it takes for sap to trail down a tree. It took about an hour for the local ambulance to come and take my mom to a community hospital that gave her nothing but pain relievers. Later, my mom was sent to a private hospital in the capital while I was responsible for taking care of my brother. My mom had to have surgery with two plates, seven screws, and thirty staples since she had broken four bones in her leg.

I was extremely scared for my mom’s health during the plane ride. The trauma to her leg caused blue, purple, green, yellow, and red bruises. It looked as though a little kid had streaked her leg and foot with markers. Her hand and foot were swelled up for a couple of days because the nurses had injected a fluid incorrectly. If my mom sat on the plane for too long without it being elevated, it could cause a blood clot and heart attack. Luckily, the doctor prescribed blood thinners and people were nice enough to switch seats with my mom so she could raise her leg on the baby changing stations. Since she was sitting with my dad, I was then needed to take care of my brother’s meals, snacks, sleep time, and activities because he has over fifty allergies and has to be very occupied.

Before, I never did any chores, but after this incident, I was responsible for taking care of my family of five, so now I realize how tough it is to support all of us. Now, she is on crutches but still mostly her independent and impatient self. She still tries to go up and down the stairs by sitting on each step and hops around on one leg when she cannot reach her crutches. It is a miracle that she is so strong and stubborn enough that she still attends all of my concerts, parades, and school events. I have heard this story many times from my parents and other people telling friends and relatives and each time, it still creates a quick flashback of the situation in my brain because of how much I empathized with my mom during that moment of distress. Throughout the whole trip, I was exposed to many new ideas and concepts, but this was a completely new view on the world for me.