Di sản, the Vietnamese word for “heritage,” can have many meanings like ancestry, culture, identity and the stories passed down through generations. For most of his life, Nick Gill never thought much about his own heritage. Growing up in Indianapolis, surrounded by his mostly white relatives and friends, he blended into American culture easily. He knew his Mom was from Vietnam and adopted at an early age, but what that meant for him was unknown.
At 17, that changed. Nick traveled to Vietnam for the very first time this past summer. For many teenagers, a trip abroad might mean a vacation or an adventure. For Nick, it was something far more personal, a journey to discover his own di sản.
The reason for the trip was simple but powerful. His mom, Suzanne Gill, was adopted out of Vietnam during Operation Babylift. This operation was a mass evacuation of over 3,300 Vietnamese orphans and children to Western countries. This occurred during the final few days of the Vietnam War as Saigon fell to the North Vietnamese forces.
For Nick, this was the first time he would set foot in the place that allowed him to be here today. “I think it was, honestly, the best experience of my life,” Nick said. “I feel like there was a big part of my personal history today that I just didn’t care to explore until I was there; now that I’m back, I keep on actively exploring it more.”
However, Suzanne was returning to her homeland nearly 50 years later. For her, it was the sum of decades spent wondering. “I was nervous and excited at the same time because it wasn’t just about me, and really going to Vietnam. It was also taking my family. I had three that had never flown before, three that had never gone out of the country. Even though they were 17, 20, and 25, I had to prioritize as a mom, not selfishly thinking about myself. So all that was that nervousness and anxiety, but also excitement,” Suzanne said.
From busy Hanoi streets filled with motorbikes to the quiet beauty of Ninh Binh’s limestone mountains, Nick found himself in a world that was once foreign and now strangely familiar. He discovered unexpected connections, faces that look like his own, mannerisms that matched his and a cultural rhythm that seemed to beat within him. “For the first time, I saw people who looked really similar to me, like eerily,” Nick said. “I realized I have my mom’s asian face. I don’t really have any aspects of a white face, and I never noticed.”
This trip opened a third eye for Nick, and it didn’t go unnoticed. “I personally feel like he didn’t know really what it was going to be like. People sometimes think, oh, they just live in villages and are very poor. But I could see, just by all he experienced, that he loved it. It opened more avenues for him, like, oh my gosh, maybe I do want to go back. He was able to experience all different things that’s really fueling his passion for traveling,” Suzanne said.
That realization also came with a new perspective. While American teenage life often revolved around school, football games and relationship drama, Nick saw kids his age in Vietnam growing up in completely different circumstances. “It just made me realize how small things are here,” Gill said. “The problems we stress about every day, they’re just nothing compared to the way kids over there live.”
Nick’s journey was not the only one, his mother’s was as well. Watching her walk the streets of her birthplace, radiating with energy and joy, gave the trip an even deeper weight. “I actually was scared I would lose her because she looks identical to everyone else there. We should have brought a leash,” Gill said. “But no, she was rediscovering something she lost, and I was discovering something I never knew I had.
For Suzanne, it was a full-circle moment. A return to the country she had left as a toddler, this time with her husband and children by her side. “It meant the world. I’ve never in a million years thought that I would be able to do something like this and to be able to share it with all my kids and my husband at the same time. I always thought maybe it would just be me and my husband, but we were very fortunate to take everybody over. It was wonderful for everyone. I could see my kids’ perspectives on life, on Vietnam, on the people; it really opened their eyes to a world we don’t see,” Suzanne said.
That balance extended to the family as a whole. Traveling together for three weeks, Nick and his family built memories that reminded him of what often gets lost in everyday life. “When you’re together every day in a foreign country, you realize how little you’re together when you’re home,” Gill said.
Halfway through the trip, something in Nick shifted. For years, he had planned to join the Navy, following in the footsteps of his family. He had even quit football to prevent injury and meet requirements. In Vietnam, clarity struck. “It gave me clarity about who I am,” Nick said. “I figured out who I am, so I figured out what I wanted to do.”
The Navy no longer felt like the right choice. Instead, he realized he wanted something that connected him to the wider world. “I don’t want to be cooped up. I don’t want to stay here,” Gill said. “I want to do something that lets me travel, something where I feel like I’m contributing, like the Peace Corps.”
The clarity was more than a career change, but another form of di sản. Heritage wasn’t only about the past, it was also about those roots that could help guide his future.
That shift has already altered Nick’s future. He is now considering studying international relations, a path that would allow him to return to Vietnam yearly, explore his Greek κληρονομιά (heritage) on his father’s side, and continue broadening his worldview. “What I really liked was how new experiences guided my personality on this trip,” Nick said. “It just makes me want to explore much more because there is so much out there.”
Vietnam, then, was not the end of a journey, but the beginning of one. It unlocked in Nick a desire not just to know who he is, but to keep searching for who he can become.
Looking back on everything, Nick knows the trip was more than a summer adventure; it was a life-changing moment. One day in Ninh Binh stands out most clearly, a hike up the mountains, a visit to the ancient Imperial Palace and dinner with his family at a pizza restaurant he now calls his favorite in the world. “Every time I think about it, I just get so emotional,” Gill said, “It was perfect.”
“It was emotional, but in different ways. Looking at my family, looking at my kids, because I never thought I was going to be a mom, and seeing how they grew, what they liked and disliked, but also that they were in the trenches. They tried things, talked to people, and were part of the culture. But the most emotional was at the War Memorial. I had to think about my mom and dad, if they survived. And my boys really supported me. They were in tears, and that’s okay; we’ve taught them compassion and that it’s okay to cry. That was probably the most emotional moment for me,” Suzanne said.
