Nguyen Trung Hieu

The author of the essay is Nguyen Trung Hieu, and 11th grader of the Hanoi-Amsterdam High School for the gifted in Hanoi, the school which gathers the best students of the capital city. In the composition, Hieu showed his thoughts about money and explained why he both liked and hated money, he appreciates and disliked money, and why he gets broken hearted because of money.

The essay was so moving that Dang Nguyet Anh, the teacher of Hieu, and all Hieu’s classmates once burst into tears when Anh read the essay before the class.

VnExpress’ reporters met Hieu at the waiting room of the Hanoi-Amsterdam High School. Hieu said he could not imagine before that his essay would become so popular one day. “I simply wrote what I thought about money as per the request by the literature teacher,” Hieu explained why he chose the topic for his essay.

This is the first essay of the 11th grade that Hieu has done. There were three topics for Hieu and the classmates to choose, the topics about money, love and about whether high school students wear uniforms to drive motorbikes.

Hieu decided to write about money, simply because this is the topic of his biggest interest, the thing that Hieu and his family’s members have been thinking about over the last many years.

Hieu wrote the essay under the mode of a letter to the mother. Sitting onto the desk to write the essay at midnight, Hieu related what happened with his family and the sick mother. 

There are five members in his family, but none of them can work. His parents have been sick all the time, while the grandparents have become too old to. Therefore, Hieu and the small family have been living on the modest pension the grandfather receives every month. Meanwhile, the grandfather is bedridden invalid, while Hieu’s mother has to experience dialysis three times a week.

The lack of money is the reason which makes Hieu’s mother’s diseases get more serious. Therefore, it is understandable, why Hieu hates money. However, he needs money to medically treat his mother with every possible means. Therefore, Hieu likes money and needs money.

Hieu said that it was a letter to the mother, but he never wants his mother to read the essay, because he fears that the mother would feel sad when reading it.

When he was at the third grade, physicians discovered that his mother has kidney disease and needed to experience dialysis three times a week. 

He wrote in the essay that until he got eight, money, in his thoughts, did not have much significance. “In my thoughts, money meant the small papers in different colors which could be used to buy cakes, candies or loafs of bread,” he wrote. And only at the age of 8, when he heard about the serious disease of the mother, did he realize that money is more important than he thought, because money could save the life of his mother. 

Hieu wrote that he hates money, because the mother cannot recover because of the lack of money, but he is really afraid of it, because he fears he would lose the mother one day, if his mother does not have money for dialysis any more.

However, the boy, who lives in difficult conditions, never keeps deviations in his thoughts about the life. He respects the people, who help his mother and his family, who donate money to help the mother treat her disease. Especially, Hieu well understands that there are many other students, who also have to live in difficult conditions like his. 

Hieu is now a member of the young people’s club, who donates money for the poor and street children. He has also joined the movement of building up a library for the poor children in Muong Te district of Lai Chau province. He wishes he can work in an application technology sector and he hopes he can treat mother, the grandfather and unlucky children. 

It is uncertain that Hieu’s dream would become true, because he has a strong will, while he is an excellent student. Le Thi Oanh, Deputy President of the school, said that though Hieu is majoring in physics, he is good at all subjects.

Thousands of emails have been sent to editorial board of newspapers and to Hieu, expressing sympathy and respect to the boy.

Hoa Phat, also a high school student, said that he could not stop crying when reading the essay. Phat said Hieu’s essay has made him change his thoughts. Phat also lives in difficult conditions, but he usually spends money on games, shopping and never thinks for parents.

Nguyen Huu Luu, an old man in Thanh Xuan district, wrote that he was so surprised when a young people wrote such a moving essay.

“I just want to say one thing. Money is valuable, but it is not all the things we need. I am old and retired, so let me drive your mother to the hospital three times a week for her treatment,” he wrote to Hieu.

Source: VnExpress