I was in Philly this weekend…

… and I visited an old house my aunts, uncles, grandmother, cousins and mom used to live in when they first immigrated here in the seventies. The story was that when my aunt got here, houses were so inexpensive that she saved her checks and bought the house within a few months. I’m not saying that my family was dirt poor when we first got here, but we sure weren’t the most affluent family on the block. Anyway, after visiting, I realized how quickly we progressed socially. All of my cousins have either graduated college, are attending college today, on their way to college, or would have been in college if they had only lived long enough. However, what amazes me most is how fast we went from an underprivileged immigrant family to an opulent group of kids within one generation.

My aunt and uncle were working blue collar jobs to support a family of seven when they first came to America (not to mention that this was during the eighties, where the unemployment rate doubled to ten percent during the recession). Twenty years later, all of their five children are college graduates earning six figure salaries and supporting families of their own. Talk about living the American Dream: having their children become financially independent  through the means of education. It’s astonishing how my cousins were influenced to motivate themselves to become the hard working people they are today (and how they influenced me to get where I am right now). What’s even  more humbling is that I don’t think my aunt or uncle asked for one penny after their daughters and sons earned their salaries, continuing their occupations as a sushi-chef and hotel cook (even though I’m positive their children wouldn’t hesitate to give a couple thousand if they asked for it).

After leaving his home and family in Vietnam (due to the war), my father arrived in America through the sponsorship of a Catholic church. Starting off with three hundred dollars, he had to adjust to a different culture as he went through West Philadelphia High School, learning a language that was completely foreign to him. On top of that, he worked night shifts at a pizzeria just to get by financially. It was tough for him, but with his perserverance, he was able to attend and graduate from Temple University, where he met my mother.

As for my story, I don’t think I ever had to or ever will work as hard as my parents, uncles, aunts and cousins did. It makes me regret not living up to my parent’s expectations of becoming a full scholarship Ivy-League student. However, not a day goes by where I don’t appreciate how much they’ve sacrificed to make sure I had the things they didn’t.