I’ve been excited about Han’s spring senior session for month’s now! This girl is extra special to me because she’s one of my dearest (and I mean dearest!) friend’s niece. I remember Truc talking about how amazing, smart, and funny she was ALL the time. I’ll save the blog post about him for another day, but for now I’ll just say that a series of events led me to meeting his beautiful niece.

Last night, I texted Han asking what her middle name was, and she told me it was Huynh (her uncle’s last name)! And that sparked an interesting conversation about Vietnamese family names! So, most females in have Thi for their middle name, and if you’re a male, your middle name is either Thanh or Van. In Vietnam, you say their middle name first, and first name last. So Han’s name would be Huynh Han. I just had no idea and thought it would be fun to share! The more you know, right?!

I still remember the first interaction I had with her back when she was only about 11 years old. One day, my friends and I were all sitting in the front yard and I got a text from her asking to send me a photo of what I looked like because we hadn’t met in person yet. She told me her name and the next thing I said was “…… How do you pronounce that?”. (It’s pronounced “Hawn” in case you were wondering!). We’ve been in touch ever since that day and I’ve gotten to see her grow and succeed! This year she’s a senior at Harrison High School and she’ll be attending Purdue University for her pharmaceutical major in the fall (just like her uncle, I might add)!

Han, I absolutely loved getting to spend the evening with you during your spring senior session! You are SO smart, SO cute, and SO driven. I can’t wait to see you walk across the stage for your college graduation! You’re going to do amazing things in this world! Truc would be incredibly proud of you. <3