Pham and Her Gold Fish

An offer from a big telecommunication company in Vietnam took place and proved it easy for a girl with fluency in English and French like Pham Thi Nguyen to find a decent job.

To congratulate her beloved daughter’s achievement, Pham’s mother bought her a tiny aquarium with a gold fish in it. Receiving the gift in excitement, the lovely girl made the fish her good friend. She named him, “Vinh”.

Like a butterfly, time flew to witness Pham excelling at her job. To no one’s surprise, the girl was promoted within just two years. Everyone thought that she must be happy, but in fact she wasn’t. She did not feel contented. In front of her mother she confessed that even though working in the company gave her good money, she felt that she was going nowhere. After learning so much in the past two years, she felt there was nothing left to learn, no more mountain to conquer.

Pham leaned against the wall, gazing at the aquarium. She saw Vinh the gold fish was struggling to swim. His round eyes reflected a downcast.

Grimacing at the bitter melancholy, Pham said, “It’s funny that my happiness seems to be parallel to Vinh’s. We were both happy at the beginning of our acquaintance, but look at us now. We’re both miserable.”

“Do you notice Vinh has grown in size?” out of nowhere her mother asked the question.

“Yes, his body has grown much larger, but the tiny aquarium certainly isn’t,” Pham replied while thrusting her head to examine Vinh more closely.

Pondering the fact that Vinh’s body had been growing but the aquarium remained the same, Pham raised her eyebrows. Gradually her eyes gleamed. She then exclaimed, “Oh, he needs a larger aquarium!”

“And so do you,” her mother gave her a beaming smile. “You need a larger aquarium in your life. When you’re not contented with what you’ve accomplished, it’s mainly because you’ve grown so much that you have to find a much bigger aquarium. It is now time for you to embark on a new course of life.”

Everything changed six months later. After being awarded the Australian Development Scholarship (ADS), Pham was now enjoying an extremely challenging academic life in the University of Melbourne. Not only that she was excelling at university, she had now made good friends with people from all over the world, something that she had been dreaming of since she was a teenager. The jolly and brilliant Pham Thi Nguyen had returned.