People always seem to wonder how I came to look and be who I am today. The questions vary in its extremities, but I find them all amusing nonetheless. How do you get that kind of nose if you’re Asian? You look more mixed is your mom or dad white? Why are you not friends with a lot of Asian people like the other Asians are? Why aren’t you married yet? How did you manage to graduate from a four year college at the age of 22? You’re dating a white guy? 6 years? Your family was in the Khmer Rouge? You’re an immigrant…but you don’t even have an accent.
My initial objective for this blog was to let everything about me unravel and let others know how I became who I am today. Who knows, maybe I’ll discover something new about me myself. I’ve never laid it all out there before so this should be interesting. So lets begin by going back, going way back.
I was born in Koh Kong Province of Cambodia on May 8th, 1984. Cambodia is located in Southeast Asia bordering Thailand, Laos and Vietnam. According to the CIA’s study, it’s size is comparable to Oklahoma, slightly smaller. Where I was born was only accessible by boat, it was an island within Cambodia. It’s strange because when I visited Cambodia this past summer we were not able to actually go there because it still is only accessible by boat. You would think that after 22 years there would be an alternative method of transportation but no, not there. Aside from the Capital City and major tourist areas, not much of Cambodia has changed really. It definitely is still a third world country. Poverty is still rampant and the image of young children begging is devastating.
According to my mom, grandma and aunt, I was born in the water. What that means is I was literally born in the lake water that surrounded our home. My uncles had to run back and forth from the well to get fresh water and heat it up which was used to assist in my birth. I am still confused about it because I don’t understand if my mom was just over water or I was actually pushed out in water. I can’t imagine my first exposure to life being under water. Maybe that explains why I couldn’t swim until I was about 12 years old.
Regardless of how I came out, it was obviously a success because I’m here to write about. I was a pretty big deal to my family because I was the first niece, granddaughter, basically grandchild in the family. Technically I am not the first grandchild but my cousin who would be 3 years older than me was born in the United States so they never got to see him be brought into the world. Sadly, I don’t have any pictures from my infant or toddler years because they were destroyed in Cambodia so I don’t really know what I looked like. I can only attempt to visualize what I’ve been told. Apparently I was extremely fair skinned with a really round face. Kind of makes me think of those creepy china dolls.
Anyways, my grandma was the one that named me and she thought of Samly immediately. The definition for Samly is white as cotton. So you see, my name actually means something, it wasn’t just thought up by throwing silverware down the stairs.
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April 8th, 2008 at 7:06 pm
wow, this is so cool! i want to hear you speak cambodian!
May 18th, 2008 at 10:01 am
i am interested to the name of samly because my name also call samly. i always ask my father about my name but he never tell me a brief of this name. i am also cambodia but now i am studying in china. i hope i will know more and more about the name of samly.
and i also hope that on one day i can see the other samly .
regards,
samly
September 19th, 2008 at 12:43 am
my is samly, i was born in cambodia in 1979. I am now in china because i am studying at Southwest University . Very nice to know the another samly.
Cheers,
samly
November 12th, 2008 at 2:36 pm
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August 7th, 2009 at 3:38 am
Samly just only the name of people that his or her parents call or define to make easy for them and other people people remember him or her. To me I think that individual of samly is difference from the other samly. So they can have the same name but it is true that they have difference idea. Take care all samly! I am samly too.
August 17th, 2009 at 5:23 am
Someone please give me the description for Samly.
January 28th, 2011 at 3:46 pm
~;- I am really thankful to this topic because it really gives great information -,*
June 20th, 2011 at 4:06 pm
The following time I read a weblog, I hope that it doesnt disappoint me as a lot as this one. I imply, I know it was my choice to read, but I really thought youd have something fascinating to say. All I hear is a bunch of whining about one thing that you could repair for those who werent too busy searching for attention.