I came to America with my parents at the age of 3. My parents did not
speak any English, did not have a high school degree, but came to America with
the thoughts of living the dream. Unfortunately, the American dream isn't
as easy as people think it is with out jobs, a grasp of the English language, or
money.
From the age of 3 to 19, I lived with my parents in an apartment. I did
not know what rich or poor was, I just knew what we had and was happy.
My parents' main goal to bring me to America was the thought that they could
have a college graduate to be proud of. My parents did anything and
everything to help me get through college. My dad was making a modest
$15/hour working at a factory making boxes while my mom was working down the
street from him making $12/hour building air conditioner parts.
Healthcare in America, whether you like it or not, is a pretty simple
concept. You work for a company and they will reward you by providing you
various benefits like medical insurance. My dad continued to work in the
factory while my mom had the ambitions of trying to be a successful entrepreneur
so we could continue to have medical insurance. Trust me the medical
insurance sucked especially being a blue collar worker that barely spoke
English. At the age 16, about sophomore year in high school, we packed up
our things and moved to a new town that was very posh and credited to be the
best public high school in the state of New Jersey. Now, as you can
imagine, going to the best high school in the densely populated state of NJ, you
have to be around very rich people. The average median income of my town
was $750,000.
My dad was making $15/hour while my mom opened up a shop in the town of rich
people thinking she could make a killing. Business was great at first but
saturation came and the competition eventually killed my mom's business.
My mom had just made barely enough to pay for my
4 years of school. Unfortunately, my parents went broke funding me through
college and my dad lost his job due to the company moving to Mexico.
Times were bleak and I knew I owed my parents back. This is how I did
it...