Started From the Bottom Now We Here

My parents first stepped foot in America in 1993 to go to college and find better opportunities.  They decided to settle in Virginia.  From there they attended Old Dominion University, where my mom got her masters and my dad got his doctors degree.  Sometime around 2000, they moved to Michigan and bought their first house , were we live in today.  Now, my dad works as a president for a Chinese Car Company, and my mom works at GM.  We live a middle class life, like many others here in Troy, Michigan, but for my parents, it wasn't always like this.

My dad grew up in Wuhan, which is a little off of the east coast of China. He lived his live not having much money.  Though despite not having money, he found happiness in his hobbies, such as soccer and ping pong.  They were able to buy the necessities such as food, water, heating, etc, but luxuries were out of the picture.

My mother's situation was a little bit worse.  She grew up in Shenyang.
 In the house were my mom and her brother, grandpa, and grandma.  My grandpa was a farmer and my grandma worked in a factory.  Often times, they would go days without meat.  In fact, meat was considered a luxury.  Most of their meals consisted of the produce grandpa harvested from his garden.  Mom was a superb student, achieving top scores in the whole school.  It was this hard work and dedication that led her to meet my father in Wuhan university, where they got together and moved to the U.S.

Hearing their backstories really opened my eye to how lucky I am to be born into such an easy life.  Sure, high school and college may be hard but it will never be comparable to what my mom and dad had to go through.  We may not be rich, but we can easily afford many luxuries, even taking vacations every year to extravagant places.  My wish is that I follow in their footsteps.  My wish is to make them proud.