As I Write To You Today, I Truly Hope Life Has Worked Out

My mother’s family is relatively new to America, early 20th century, and had migrated here from Bohemia (one of the Czech lands) after many political changes were occurring in Europe; which, eventually lead to the Great War (World War I). In their exodus from Europe all of their wealth was left behind and they only brought to America what they could carry. After arriving to the United States of America my ancestors immediately became successful with ambition and entrepreneurship. No one in my family stands idly by, nor do any of us stand around waiting for welfare. We are all very educated and successful and we have no tolerance for laziness and whining. My stepfather’s family is also from a highly successful and educated background; however, his family were in America since the Crowne. His family is linked to Thomas Jefferson, via marriage, and has had involvement with many of America’s great moment in history, such as, his families lumber company provided the wood for the first five frigates commissioned by Jefferson during the Barbary War. My biological father too has an in-depth history here in America. His family mostly were military officers in many of the countries early wars; i.e., French Indian Wars, Revolutionary War, Civil War, Spanish-American War, etc. Overall, I have quite an extensive

Over the previous years, I grew bored with routine. I didn’t involve myself with school activities and stayed home for most of my days. My parents rarely planned any activities for me and my sisters. I had stopped expecting them to involved themselves with my school life. I didn’t even mind when they wouldn’t come for my band concerts. It’s hard being a child of immigrant parents. There are situations they would never be able to understand. The sole advice they can give me is about hard work. They want to push me and my sisters to our limits so we could have the better life that they never had. From them, I learned life lessons of self-sacrifice and determination of making things work, despite the roadblocks and challenges.

My parents came to the U.S. with nothing but the money in their pockets. We lived with my three aunts for a year, until my father could figure what to do. He decided to start a convenience store to try to provide for his family. He was not making as much as he was in Korea, but he had to make do with what he had. Due to this lack of income, I had to attend four different elementary schools: one in Korea, two in Baltimore County, and one in Howard County. Even though two of them were in Baltimore County, I still could not maintain my friendships because I could not drive, and my parents had to work all the

My dad has been working as a carpenter for eight straight years. My dad has worked on small simple things to structures like houses that could hurt him. My mother she works on different things for example gift baskets to as a waitress but she doesnt work often because she has to take care of my smaller siblings. Both of my parents have made a lot of sacrifices that i don’t know how i am going to pay them back. Most of the time i think to myself why do they do this how can the put up with us especially with me since i am like the black sheep of the family. Are we really that important to my parents and are we worth it?. My parents only reply with a “yes” and they tell me that when i have my own kids and family i will understand and know how it feels to rise four kids in and environment like this and the economic situation and if we didn't want to feel this much stress to work hard and get stable so we don't have to worry like they did. Even tho i might not know that yet or know what they really went through or how hard it was but i know that they had a hard time raising me and my three other siblings. We also lived in a small trailer yet i still don't know how she managed to fit all of us in that small trailer, get us ready for school, feed us, having us with really nice clothes i don’t know but they managed to and i appreciate it

So when they moved to North Bethesda, they knew I would have a better head start in life than most other people, African American or Caucasian. I’ve maintained over a 4.0 GPA, with a mix of A’s and B’s . I was raised as a catholic, going to church most every sunday with my father, most people in his country are christians but when he moved to america he converted to catholic. This instilled values into me, to believe in jesus christ and believe that there’s a reason for everything because he set it up that way. I’m the older sister to one (half) brother, who is only six years old with my parents working often it leaves me to be in charge of my brother, which has made me become very domesticated at an early age, and pretty talented in being able to communicate and understand with those at a much younger age than me. I can cook any dish that I have the recipe too, and can make a meal in under 45 minutes. My parents become divorced when I was 4, which instilled values in me to wait till I was mature enough, and also in a long term stable relationship before I get married because to wake up one day and realize I know longer love the person I married is the scariest thing to

One thing that I experienced due to where I lived and my parent’s social class was the fact that I got to attend a good school district, with updated technology and books. My parents’ success and lifestyle were all the reason to me to be hard worker and do well in school. After high school, I took a break in my education, which set me apart from many others whom I had previously been societally grouped together with. This was the cause of many judgments against me, which was difficult at times. Society’s idea of “normal” is to attend college directly after graduating high school, but society’s normal wasn’t going to work for me as I had became pregnant right out of high school, and felt the need to focus my direction on working and making more money in the immediate.

My parents did not have many options. They come from very poor families and started working at very young ages, not having the opportunity to finish their basic education. They only went back to school to pursue their high school equivalency certificates in their forties (when I was

After reading the email you sent us tonight, I’ve decided to write you this email. With what’s happening in our country right now, I just feel the need to let you know that I really appreciate you reaching out to us as well as sharing your thoughts and feelings. I have to say that it is very hard not to feel hopeless at the outcome of this election. However, I realized that no matter what, the strength and unity of those who are likeminded in loving, caring and open-minded will allow us to go through this together as a country. No matter what we can find our way back to humanity, and fight to protect the immigrants, LGBT, people of color, and the female communities. Personally, I’m still trying to make sense of it. I can’t wait for the in-class

As I stand before you today I’m beyond certain that most of you are not thinking about what your life is going to be like tomorrow or five years from now; but thankful that you’ve finally made it to this day, this moment. The majority of you are probably thinking about staying up to the wee hours of the nights getting papers and exams done, finally not having

I come from a working class family. My dad recently retired after working 27 years at a job and now he is working at ???. Nothing came easy to him at his first job and I watched him work so hard to accomplish promotions that he deserved. He went to a two-year college and was able to get a job. When he wanted to get these promotions he started to go back to school online and now he has his bachelors. My mom never went to college but she stayed home with my brother and me because of my dad working. Both of my parents believed in me, which made me want to work and try so hard. They made

I currently work two job five days a week. My first job I work at Dona Chuy’s in Jewett where I work fifteen hours there, and also in Teague at Rancho Nuevo where I work ten hours a week there. Working twenty-five hours a week and being in high while also taking dual credit does not come in easy at all. I am always asked why I work so much, they ask if my parents work me and my response is also I work for myself. Both my parents are married and we all live in the same house with my two older sisters and one older brother. That in total is six people living in one hour, every one of my sibling has a job and works for their own money, not because my parents explode up but, because they have tough us that you have to work hard for what you want in life. My dad works at a local shop where he earns thirteen an hour, overall this pay is not enough to maintain family expenses and send a child to college. This and many other reason is why I chose to attend a Junior college instead of a university. I was to earn a good degree to one day be able to give my parents all the new things they

He eventually found stable jobs working as a social worker and a taxi driver part-time so that he can take care of the family financially while attended a master’s program for counseling. My mother also instilled work hard in me by working the night-shift so that she can take care of me and my brother. I watched as years of the night shift took a toll on her physically and she never complained. They always told me how they came to America for a better life and worked hard so that I would not have to endure the challenges and obstacles that they did. They wanted me to take advantage of the opportunity and I feel like I cannot let them down. My parents taught me to be courteous and respectful and told me work stories and how I should learn from them. For example, they always told me to stay out of gossip at work and keep to myself, which I still do to this day. As a male with no sisters, I do not know if I would have been treated differently being a woman. However, watching the gender roles of my parents, my mother would be the primary caretaker while my father focused on working two jobs so that he could help the family financially. In terms of chores around the house, my father and mother split cooking and cleaning. However, yard work was strictly for the man in the

My childhood experiences were fun-filled and exciting, both sides of my family are large and we always traveled to different states to visit other family members and we lived in a decent neighborhood, identifying ourselves as middle-class citizens. I received my first stamp on my U.S. Passport at age 7 when I traveled to Germany and Paris with my paternal grandmother. Once I began middle school, I can recall on many occasions feeling sheltered by my parents. For example, I learned about the “birds and the bees” through conversations with my peers and my parents were older in comparison to my classmates’ parents around me, therefore, the assumption was that children with older parents were oblivious to the nature of youthfulness and the openness to communicate with their parents. If I want to participate in an outing with schoolmates, I had to ask permission several days in advance or if play 21-Questions with my parents about who would be there, where would the parents be, and how I’d be getting home. As an adult, I value the “old-school” way of parenting and the moral standards that I learned early on.

I believe it is because parents compare how hard they struggle to make it in society on their own, and this was when the economy wasn’t as bad as it is now and they don’t want such struggles, for their children. Parents are allowing their children to use their (the parents) supplies or belonging, such as (house, cars, finances, light, gas, water, furniture etc...) in order to support their children’s transition into adulthood. Goldsheider & Goldscheider (1999) asserts that it is possible that, just as parents use their resource to protect their children from early nest leaving, they also use their resources to subsidize their children’s transition into adulthood (p.

One of my biggest accomplishments was to be able to attend college. As a first generation low income student who immigrated to the United States, I have struggled to maintain my education as a free resource for my future. Never would I have thought that my life would change so drastically for the better of me and my family. Without my loving, supportive and caring parents, I do not think that I would be where I am right now. As an only child, my parents have always been there for me. They have sacrificed so much to give me a better education and that means a lot for me, therefore I want to give back to them more than they gave me. I have seen my dad struggled in his job and I have experienced the hardships of working in his job myself. Working