Missing
an Arm
By Joey Arnold
The Original Oatmeal
28th of April, 2013
My arm fell off in the storm, as I was
moving from Bac Ninh, Vietnam (which is 20 km from Hanoi) to Saigon
around the 10th of February of 2013. I am much more
useless without arms.
Since I was 8 years old, I've wanted
to travel the world as a missionary to the poor. I wanted to be a
male version of Mother Teresa I also wanted to be the European
version of Michael Jackson. I have always wanted to bring cheer and
excitement to others. I was born and raised in the United States. I
was born partly deaf. I started learning incorrectly because I was
not able to talk efficiently enough.
When I was 7 years old, after taking a
state required test, doctors and teachers concluded from the test
results that I'd never pass the 6th grade and that I was
clearly mentally retarded.
However, my mother believed in me. She
taught me at home. This is what we call “Home School.” I had
hearing tubes placed in my ears when I was about 1 years old or
younger. I started wearing glasses when I was 1 years old as well. It
was very hard to understand me at first because I was talking my own
way, since I could not hear much. When I was 4 years old, my siblings
(brother and sister) laughed, “He is so an alien or at least
adopted.”
I started drawing and singing
soundtracks since I was 2 years old. I started learning math when I
was 5 years old. I started learning how to read and write when I was
7 years old. When I was 10 years old, at a Summer Basketball Camp at
the near-by high school, a coach asked me what my name was. I could
barely get a whisper out. I tried saying that my name is “Joey.”
They stirred back, “Jerry?” They heard me wrong because I was so
shy.
My father bought me and my older
brother a camcorder when I was 10 years old. I immediately brought
out my 20-page film-script for the Power Rangers Kids movie that I
was planning for the last few years. I was the head writer, director,
cameraman, producer, actor, main movie star, costume designer,
editor, manager. We made this hour long film in only 5 days. Since
then, I've made hundreds of videos and a few movies.
Since I was 2 years old, I have been
drawing. Since I was 8 years old, I have been writing stories and
comics and songs. That means I am also a song writer and a dancer.
When I was 7 years old, I won a dancing contest on Easter day in my
own neighborhood in front of taller hotter girls and older guys. This
is who I am. I am all about inspiration. When I was 15 years old, I
started drawing cute little cartoon pictures of my friends. I was
trying to compete with the ever popular Pokemon Cards and Yu-Gi-Oh
Cards. I made funny beautiful pictures of people. I would make them
say things like a comic. I would write stories and poems and songs
for my friends. People started loving them so much that everybody
began asking me to make them some. I started calling them
Encouragement Articles (Eas).
When I first started going to public
high school when I was 15 years old, people would ask me what was up
and I told them that the ceiling was. As I grew older and taller, I
became less shy. I started taking art classes. I also enjoyed playing
basketball since I was 7 years old. I started taking drama classes
because I love making movies. I started taking writing classes. In
college, I was studying web design and keyboard typing. In high
school, I started going to school dances to dance with the ladies,
and yet I was too much of a gentleman to have a girl friend. I turned
28 years old on the 11th of February of 2013. I am single
and not married. I do not have a girl friend. I am a friend to all. I
love making people laugh.
For 5 summers and 2 winters, I hiked
and climbed and had wonderful adventures as a counselor for children
and teens at camps in New York, Oregon, and California. M life has
been filled with bumps and bruises like a roller coaster. I am
cruising through storms in a ship in the ocean of huge waves. Life is
full of twists and turns, but please hang on for the ride of your
life.
I came to Hanoi, Vietnam, on a
Thursday, the 29th of November of 2012 because the New
Star English Center in Bac Ninh, Vietnam asked me to teach English.
After 5 days and 40 hours of teaching English to children who did in
fact loved me, the school emailed me saying they thought I only knew
a little English, that people hate me, and that I was in fact only a
tutor and not an actual teacher. I was fired and never paid for my
work. I did not have enough money to fly back to the United States
where I was born and raised at, since I am a white American whom
ancestors are from Holland, England, Germany, Ireland, Scotland, etc.
All my ancestors are only from European countries as far I can tell
and no other continents.
I was fired but the owner of the Papa
Foods restaurant, Andy Nguyen, saved my life. Allowed me to sleep on
the floor of the restaurant as long as I washed dishes, mopped
floors, watched bikes, and helped out. Whenever I was not working, I
would go online (on my laptop) in search of a new job. But I was not
able to find a job.
I was getting scared because I was
running out of money and my 3 months multiple-entry Vietnam Tourist
Visa was going to expire on the Friday of the 22nd of
February of 2013. I was in a hurry to find a job. After looking all
over in Bac Ninh, Hanoi, and even Hoa Binh, I ventured off to Ho Chi
Minh (HCM) on the Sunday of the 10th of February of 2013.
I was off in Saigon with just 1
suitcase and my backpack. I now work at a different New Star English
Center in the Tan Phu District and for the Tan Van Foreign Language
School at kindergarten and elementary schools at the different
districts in Saigon, Vietnam.
Sadly, I left my 2nd
suitcase at Papa Foods. In it is my collection of home videos,
articles, stories, songs, drawings, and other things that mean the
world to me. At the moment, I am not sure I can get them back or not.
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