Born as an Aussie

Table of Contents:

1. Victor Tao Liang
2. Street Dancers
3. Meow Meow
4. California

Victor Tao Liang

My first name, Victor, was given to be by my father. It means “winner”, something my father wants me to be. My middle name, Tao, means large waves. It is also my Chinese name, and is pronounced tou in Cantonese. There isn't much behind my father giving it to me for he gave it to me just as randomly as he gave my first name to me. He was stuck on it like a fly is stuck on a spider's web since it had a nice tone to it. My last name, Liang, was passed down to me by my father. I am not really proud of it since every Liang above my generation has a problem of being overly stubborn.

All of my father's siblings are different in many ways, yet the same as a whole with each other. My father, the oldest sibling, has as much pride as a lion does. He will never back down no matter how wrong he is. He does not take medication for his high blood pressure all because he doesn't want to rely on medication like other people do. The second uncle has a problem of blurting out everything on his mind. He would continue to defend determinedly whatever offensive things he says, even when he might realize how wrong he is. No matter how much anger is directed to what he says, he will not change or fix what he did wrong in the first place, just like the fly that persistently runs into the glass window, hoping to get through. Next up is my third uncle, who is so careless about everything stretching from his family's feelings to his money. He would fly back and forth from California back to his wife and daughter in China whenever he wants even though he barely has enough money to feed himself. When he flies back to America, he begs for food and shelter without apologizing to my next topic, my aunt. She is a single mother that works really hard. She has a lot of money saved under her bed, but the only thing she will spend it on is food. She will be so generous towards what she buys to eat, but will never spend another penny on her trash can that is broken and is so contaminated, it looks like a blob covered with layers of gunk from an old garbage container.

Unlike the old generations of Liangs, my siblings, my cousins, and I all realize our parent's flaws and have learned to behave unlike them. The main reason I am positive and caring towards others is because my father, a lot of times, isn't like that towards me, which I know makes me unhappy and left out in the world.

Street Dancers

It was a day on sunshine where my father, mother, brother, and I went to visit the Sydney Opera House. As we were looking at the glistening water near the Opera House, we saw a colossal crowd of people gathering behind us. My family went to see what was happening together. As we walked closer, we saw that it was a group of street dancers doing their amazing moves. I was memorized by their awesome tricks and flips that I crawled closer and closer to them. After they were finished with their routine, I looked around to find my family. To my shock, they had walked away some time ago, leaving me behind. My whole body froze as my eyes widened. I got tense and I started to panic. I ran around the area searching for my family. There were so many people that resembled skyscrapers that I couldn't break free from the crowd. My eyes started to water as I felt the need to collapse. I thought that my whole life would end right then and there. I picked myself up from the ground, and started yelling out to my parents. I cried and cried while I started to lose hope. Not one adult bothered to help me. They just glanced at me in a sorry way, and just walked by. A few more seconds of me weeping went by until I finally saw my worried parents running towards me. The second I wiped my eyes to see them, my whole body relaxed. It felt like I was finally at peace after being tortured. This whole sequence happened in about a few minutes, but it felt like a lifetime to me. This little event has changed my life in that I have learned the value of never being in an unknown place without someone who does know the area, and for the rest of that day, I held onto my mother leg or hand to feel secure.

Meow Meow

I lived on Sheffield Street, a street crawling with cats a dogs. A street where every single cat lived outdoors in daylight, sneaking outside the fences of the house. There were also many stray cats living on the street. One day, I was jumping around, pretending to be a swordsman equipped with a branch of a sword in my backyard when I spot a stray black cat sitting under my house's rain water tank that was made to save rain water to feed the plants. Frightened, I quickly ran inside my house, calling for my brother Raymond. As my brother comes out of his room, so does my cousin Adrian who has lived with my family ever since he moved from Hong Kong. They ask me what is the problem, and I tell him about the cat. They are surprised, and quickly follow me to look at the cat. It sat silently under the tank, staring at us with its sparkling eyes. We called for it by saying, “meow meow, meow meow”, like the cat actually spoke meow. It didn't move an inch, so we went to Plan B. My father loves to fish, so he always has fish bait inside the refrigerator. We quickly took a fish, and ran back to offer it to the cat. We continued to call for it, “meow meow, meow meow”. It slowly crept towards us. We knew he wanted the fish, so we dropped it close to it. It slowly ate it while we watched it as if we were watching the last seconds of a tied basketball game. When it was finished, it crawled back under the water tank like a turtle climbing back into its shell. We quickly got a few more fish, and fed the cat them. It ate it happily, and politely left after it was full. Adrian, Raymond, and I felt accomplished. The next day, I was in the backyard again, helping my mom shovel soil in her garden. I glanced under the tank, and to my surprise, the same stray cat was there. We fed it fish as usual, and when it was finished, it left as usual. We would still call to it, “meow meow, meow meow”. It came every day after that, eating all of the fish we offered it. Every single time, the cat would become more confident with us.

After all of the fish my father had stocked was gone, we fed it milk. We took a metal dish, and poured pure and white milk into it. The cat would drink it just as happily. As it was drinking, we would go near it to pet it. At first, it would hesitate and stare at us with a look of warning, but it got used to us walking up and petting it. It got used to us to the point where it would come inside the house. Raymond and I would ask our parents if we could keep the pet, and they would hesitantly agree. It was officially our pet after it met everyone in the family. We put a collar on it, but it still didn't have a name. We fathomed it for a long time, but we couldn't think of anything but “Meow Meow”. It was short, easy, and most importantly, the cat responded to it.

California

Ever since I was in primary school in Australia, I have always been surrounded by immature, but catchy phrases. One of them being a rude answer to a question of where something is. It is “up your butt around the corner, all the way to California”, and it would be said all the inside and outside of school. I didn't know much about the Earth until I studied geography in the United States. I always thought that the Earth was just a ball that had patches of land that were separated by which color of the rainbow it was since the closest thing I saw of the Earth was a rainbow-colored globe that had tiny words that told the country and capitals. I never knew what California was. I imagined it to be one of those words that is made up to rhyme stuff with. It was either that or it was a made up land that was talked about, like Fairyland. When I found out that I was moving there, I was completely confused. My father was the one to tell me that we were moving there, and I found it weird for him to joke around since he was always rigid and serious. I later talked to my brother, Raymond, about the land of California.

“I thought California was made up!”

“No. Haha. It is in America, and we are moving there.”

“I know that, but I thought it was made up in the “up your butt around the corner, all the way to California”.” He just laughs and ends our conversation right there.

As we crept closer and closer to moving, I would be constantly asked by my friends, “Where are you moving to?”.

“America”

“Which state in America?”

“Um, I don't know. What is a state?”

Even when I lived in California, I didn't understand what California really is, what a state is, why California is a state, and what is the United States of America. All I knew was that I was from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.