The email said:

"Apart from the above list of little things that are easy to clean up, I thought your audio recording was terrific. I’m glad you decided to read it yourself as it comes across as you sharing your story first hand directly with the listener. I Marvel how clearly and well you speak and read English given you didn’t start learning the language until you were about 16-17 years of age.

I’m blown away with your story; so glad you have written this book. It has filled in many important gabs for me. It’s incredibly interesting for me to hear you put so eloquently into word many of the things I’d witnessed or felt as a child in Vietnam and then having to navigate life between two cultures after having arrived in a new country in the same period of time – the 70’s and 80’s. Being the eldest child of my family, I also found myself saying yes yes yes to many of the things you shared about family expectations and the pressures that went with being the eldest child. I also really enjoyed your reflections, and the learnings/understandings you had gained in your attempt to make sense of things.

 Many thanks for having me as a beta listener Lea. Good luck with finalizing your audio version. I look forward to the release of your audio version. I’ll definitely be letting my family and friends know about both versions of your book"

 Best regards, Simon

*************************************

Tears were streaming down my face when I read this email from my beta listener for my audiobook. Simon Wong is an ethnic Chinese descent like me, who fled Vietnam in his early teen. He is an accomplished man who has impaired vision and a phenomenal story. 

He lives in Australia, where he resettled as an immigrant in the early 80s, a similar time frame to me. Simon is a blind athlete and was a torch bearer for the 2000 Sydney Olympics Torch relay. Here is a short article about his story. https://bit.ly/3PVyh0o

I am so blessed that last year, Simon found me on one of the podcasts I was a guest on. He reached out to me via my website email, all the way from the land of down under to nudge me and encourage me to turn my book "I Did Not Miss the Boat- Memoir of a Vietnam Hoa Refugee" into an audiobook. I love a good challenge, but only when it aligns with the purpose, and in this case, I am proud to say I chose the difficult road of narrating the book myself, although I had doubted my ability in every single minute!

It’s not perfect, by far by my standard, but it is done, and now I am looking forward to releasing this wild child to the world in September, which will mark my second book anniversary. (So help me, God!)This is my WHY! This is the impact I dream of achieving when I write the story. This is why I become an author and a speaker, although writing and speaking are NOT my forte. 

It filled my heart with joy to know that telling my life journey has helped many people who are not refugees or immigrants see things from a different perspective and also helped people who had trauma to reconnect with their roots and amend their pasts. 

If you have read my book and it has impacted you in any way, shape, or form, I would very much appreciate a review on Amazon or LinkedIn. It will help my message to get to the hands of people who need to hear it. Thanks

Here is the link to connect with me, buy my book, listen to my TEDx story, and leave me a review. Thanks!

https://www.leatran.com/  

http://bit.ly/LeaTranTEDx

Amazon Review page for I Did Not Miss the Boat: https://amzn.to/3oj9AhL