I Don't Want to Let You Down

This week is crazy. Working at a switch factory (just for this week) eight hours during the day and doing cleaning at a butcher shop for two hours in the evenings. I finally understand why my mom wanted me to get an education...so I wouldn't have to do these kinds of jobs.

At the factory we assemble parts for switches and other electronic items. The job is purely repetitive motion and is the epitome of boredom. As one female co-worker put it "I get eight hours to think about life." However, let's make it clear, I'm not complaining. I'm happy with any work that I get, because this is survival. I've also had the opportunity to notice some things.

There's a lot of Vietnamese mothers at the switch factory and they remind me of my friends' moms. Just like them, my friends' mothers (and my mom as well) immigrated to a new country to find better opportunities. They're doing this kind of menial work so that their kids don't have to. They want their children to go to college, graduate, and find better jobs (sound familiar?).

To their surprise they find someone like their son, raised in a Western country* and speaks English as a first language, working under them.

A common question I get when they hear I'm from America is "What (the hell) are you doing here?"

I wonder myself (sometimes). At least I get to experience first hand the type of labor my mom and my friends' moms do and I know where they're coming from.

I can't help but feel gratitude and also a sense of shame when I realize how much my mom sacrificed. And I understand why a lot of my peers do what they do, studying hard in college and/or pursuing stable careers.

Her sacrifice gives me greater inspiration to study, to create, and (on the pragmatic side) to invest my money wisely.

I always keep in mind that this work is just a step to where I want to go.

I don't want to let you down.



*Here I take "Western" as being developed English speaking countries, in this case USA and Australia.