Cara Shorey

by

Cara Shorey

November 1, 1998

My name is Cara Shorey. I was born on December 29, 1989. I weighed five pounds and four ounces, and was nineteen inches tall. I didn't weigh much because I was five weeks early, but I was big enough to go home without spending a lot of time in the hospital. I was only alive for two days in 1989, so there's not much to talk about for that year.

My father is American and my mother is Vietnamese. That makes me half American and half Vietnamese. I was born at Emerson Hospital in Concord, Mass. We lived in Hudson Mass.

I spoke my first word when I was only two months old. The first word I spoke was "ma". In 1990 my family lived in Seattle for the summer while my dad worked on a project there. When the project was finished we bought a car and drove it all the way from Seattle to San Diego, along the west coast, and then all the way home to Boston from there.

In 1992 my younger sister was born. Her name is Alicia. From the very beginning I was a big help, and I'm still a very good older sister. Even though I was only two and a half years old I was very good at watching her and keeping her out of trouble.

In 1993 my grandmother came to visit from Vietnam. This was the first time I had ever met her, and the first time my mother had seen her since my mother escaped in 1979. She is pretty old and doesn't speak any English. She lived with us for a few months, but only my mother could talk to her so she went back home to Vietnam.

In 1994 we went on a big vacation to Florida. We took my Aunt and a whole bunch of my cousins with us. We all drove my father crazy, and we had a real good time. We went to Disney World, Sea World, Universal Studios, and visited my cousins.

This was also the year that I won a big award in my ballet class - outstanding student! The award was presented at the end of our annual recital. My whole family was there and everybody was very proud.

In 1995 I started kindergarten in Hudson. My teacher was Mrs. Boudreau. This was pretty neat because later Mrs. Boudreau changed schools to Boxborough, and she ended up being the kindergarten teacher for my younger sister in Boxborough. My great grandmother on my fathers side passed away, she was 85 years old.

Our big vacation in 1995 was in the Virgin Islands. We went down with my grandparents and my cousin. We flew down and rented a big sailboat, and my father and grandfather sailed us around for ten days. We slept in the sailboat at night, and sailed around and went swimming during the day.

In 1996 we moved into our new house in Boxborough. We had to sell our house in Hudson and live in an apartment in Marlborough while we had the new house built. The new house is really fun. It has a big barn where my father keeps lots of cars, and two of our neighbors have horses. I started school at Blanchard and was in the mixed grade class. My teacher was Mrs. Daigle.

In 1997 we went on a big vacation in Europe. We visited a lot of countries - Italy, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, and Switzerland. My father tried to take us to the Alfa Romeo museum in Italy, but it was closed. In Italy everybody takes long vacations in the summer time.

I started my second year at Blanchard, but Mrs. Daigle had left so I had a new teacher, Mrs. House.

In 1998 our vacation was in Washington, DC. We saw the White House, a lot of monuments, and spent a couple of days in the Smithsonian Museum.

In 1998 I also started third grade at Blanchard. My teacher is Mrs. Livolsi.

Right now I'm taking ballet, learning Vietnamese, sing in the chorus, and would like to start to learn to play a musical instrument. When I grow up I would like to become a ballerina.

The end (for now!).