Traveler's Journal: My birthplace

Instead of making a list of places I went and making short comments, I decided to go one place at a time. As a traveler, it is not always about flying or driving one place to another. It is a journey that made me a world traveler. People usually say that traveling around helps them to see the world beyond the 'rosy' glasses. Lets start with where I was born. I revisited this place about a year ago on a road trip.

I was born in Castro Valley, California, to former Dr. Tommy Leong and Marian Pena. I was born in Eden Hospital. My mom had to go through 12 hours of labor. My brother was also born in this hospital two years later. Both of us were born in October. It was also during football season and my dad was big fan of former Los Angeles Rams (now they are St. Louis Rams). My dad is still die hard fan of Rams even though they moved to St. Louis, Missouri. My mom wanted to throw the ice chips at my dad because he just forgot to keep massaging her feet to comfort her while she was in labour. I love my dad for doing that so we could laugh about this instead of giving my mom painful memories about going through 12 hours of labour. My brother was born two weeks premature with cord around his neck. They named me Christina Dianna Pena Leong Mei Ling. Mei Ling is my Chinese name. My brother's name is Brandon Benito Pena Leong.

I use to live in Fremont, Milpitas. We lived in my dad's house when he was a bachelor. When my brother was born, we moved to bigger house across the street. It was a German style house and it has two stories. I think it was about five bedrooms and 3.5 baths. I had a little doll house and it was a great place to do hide and seek with my dad.

I went back there about a year ago to check out the shopping center my mom bought many years ago before I was born. Someone already bought my old house. We had to sell it to buy business for my uncle in the Philippines. We had to move to Southern California because of me. I became deaf when I was one-year-old. My parents decided to move to be close to a special school that would train me to listen and speak.

I don't know what it would be like if we never moved. Looking at my birthplace and leaving it became a symbol of sacrifices my parents had made. They had to give up normal life and beautiful house so I could be able to speak and listen. It was no turning back for my family.

My dad's uncle, my grand uncle Don and auntie Ewing are still in San Jose. Whenever i visit San Jose, my family and I stayed in Embassy Suites. It was a nice hotel. I had a great memories there especially the breakfast buffet. It was so much fun!

I am going to end this now... next destination: Whittier, California