mom and dad.

I fucking hate it when people tell me how "spoiled" I am. I mean I'm sure I am to an extent but listen, I give my parents mad fucking props for getting to where they are today. They immigrated over here in the 80s, abandoning their friends and family in order to be the first ones to make it in the new world. They came over here with barely any money, newly married in their mid 20s, my father attended UCR and Chapman University studying all night for TOEFL tests, trying to catch onto a language that he knew nothing about, all the while working at a toy store in the neighborhoods of South Central LA to make ends meet while my mother was pregnant with her first child. They went from scrounging money, being broke, living in bad neighborhoods, and had so many financial struggles for over 10 years before finally showing some promise but not before several years of hard work and so many trials.

My parents don't get the recognition they deserve. They literally worked from the bottom up, but never once complained about how hard the journey was. They had to deal with raising my brother and me, and also my cousins whose parents didn't pay a single penny for the several years my parents raised them in America so that they could study here too. I had cousins live with me for several years because their parents wanted them to learn English and attend college here as well. But did my aunts/uncles even give them a fucking penny for their expenses? Nope. All that money came out of my parents' pockets, as broke as they were. Instead of only having to raise two of their biological children, they had to raise 5 of my cousins as well.

So I fucking hate it when people try to insinuate how "rich" my parents are and whatnot. No they are not. They aren't featured in MTV cribs. It's not like they inherited any of this. They worked so hard to provide for my brother and me. Paying for club swimming tuition isn't cheap either, but they managed to do that for over 12 years as well. It's not like they basked in their "money" and played and the dough just rolls in. It was nothing like that. They still work so tirelessly to this day. I want my mother to retire more than anything because her health isn't so good but she refuses to quit, just so she could see me through grad school. I don't want her to work anymore. I really don't. They refuse to quit, because they want to build something for my brother and me. They've made so many sacrifices for the two of us; instead of living their own lives, they decided to put my brother and me first before anything. They're so selfless; they could be vacationing somewhere and relaxing but they refuse to because they want to leave their children something to hold onto. I can't believe it. I can't ever imagine being that selfless. They put every penny towards our future, while not ever spending a single dollar on themselves.

All this makes me so sad because I know I will never be as good of parents as them someday.