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Growing up, I was very much obliviant as to what my parents’ background was really like until my freshman year of high school when we were assigned a project in my Asian American Studies class. The project required us to interview an immigrant we know, in which I interviewed my mom. After interviewing her, I was able to grasp a better perspective of her family life in Guangzhou, China before she immigrated to America. I learned that living in a small apartment along with six other siblings definitely did not incentivize my mom and her siblings to continue living there. Because of the small living space and the poor life styles they inhabit in China, they wanted to start a new life in America where they heard that pleasant conditions were feasible. This mindset was also known as obtaining the American Dream. At the age of twenty-two, my mom finally got to taste the American air. However, this glory came with hardships as my mom struggled to make money. After working hard in her passion for cosmetology, she obtained a license which enabled her to sustain a job as a hairstylist. Although it was stressful at times, my mom would tell me that she would rather struggle in America for a short period of time than struggle in China for the rest of her life. This mindset, that both my mom and dad shared, led to my parents’ repetitive lectures about studying hard in school so that I can go to college and essentially establish a more prosperous life than their own. As Donghua and Shuanghai says, “‘As long as our daughter’ life is better than ours, it’ all worth it…we don’t want her to follow in our footsteps,'” (Loyolka 25). In contrast to Donghua’ and Shuanhai’ thoughts of not wanting their daughter to follow in their footsteps, I personally do want to follow my parent’ footsteps in terms of their diligent ambition of constantly trying to improve our family’ life. My mom’ immigration story resonated with me in that despite moving to a completely new place, she was able to figure out a way to develop a comfortable environment for herself. Through perseverance, she was also able to bolster her own financial situation. Unfortunately, money continued to become an issue in our family when my parents had my brother and I. We were constantly living on a budget. Because of this budget-spending mindset my parents would argue an abundance almost every single day. My brother and I would wake up to bickering about payments and bills from our upstairs bedroom. Due to financial hardships, we were unable to continue paying for our house in San Francisco, so we moved to Alameda. From Alameda, we moved to Union City one year later due to the same problem. Due to the fact that I was unknowledgeable of the hardships immigrants had to go through just to maintain a life in America, the concept of moving from place to place was hard for me to cope with when I was young and immature. Adjusting to each new location, especially with school, it brought about fears of being unable to make friends. This, I later found was laughable because I realized that through living in different communities, it helped me broaden my perspective of various types of people and cultures. Instead of assimilating to other cultures of those around me like my mom did when she first came to America, I stayed true to my Chinese roots. For example, I was not afraid to tell others about certain Chinese taboos or traditions when the topic arises amongst my friend groups. After knowing my mom’ experiences as an immigrant, it gave me a full comprehension of how insignificant my issues were when I moved to different housing locations. Through working low-paying jobs and seeking a permanent place to stay, the life of an immigrant is beyond comparable to the local migrations I experienced throughout my life thus far.