She has adapted by kneeling at the computer and standing in class. Getting a Ph.D. is not what my body wants me to do. Sometimes things get so overwhelming here. Nguyen is modest about her life, and she says she still gets very frustrated. But the more she accomplishes, the easier it is to ask for help.
Freedom is what it's about.
I know where I get my strength. Fuzzy images of children playing atop an abandoned Army jeep. In the summer of 1975, Nguyen, her mother and younger brother, and an uncle joined the many boat people fleeing Vietnam. They swam ashore in Thailand and ended up later that year in Rochester, N.Y., where Nguyen grew up. Most memories of that summer are as fuzzy as the old, gray photo.