The Humbling Effect of the United States

Many professionals from other countries take less skilled jobs in the U.S or specifically study a different filed just to get a job. Doctors usually become nurses and lawyers become typical government employees. However, this is not the humbling effect that I find most, well, humbling.

Although wealth is scantly and fairly distributed among different classes, society isn’t as stratified.  Anyone can go to Safeway and everyone shops at Target.  Food, both typical and exquisite is easily obtained by people – rich or poor.

Despite of all these, what humbles me the most is the diversity in this country. Each person that hailed from a different country has a different story to tell, hardships to overcome and sacrifices to make. During my sessions with the citizenship class, an individual or two would share their story with me. A gentlemen from Fiji told me that he was a boxer that from his country with no formal education. This makes it hard for him to learn English for instance yet his skills are sufficient for the purposes his job. He shared his reverence for the law through an anecdote about man that he restrained for assaulting another man. He has distinct tattoos on his knuckles and square glasses that reminds me of the old man from Up. I am his unofficial class aide and during the “graduation” potluck, he brought samosa for the class . He was so happy to know that I liked his recipe. It warms my heart at how much he feels gratitude towards me.

Another woman that I met from the class is a widow from Brazil.  She is such an adorable old woman who still goes to the gym and is very much eager to learn more English in the future. Her story is a bit tragic. Her husband was murdered by a drunkard while they were vacationing somewhere in Brazil. Not feeling safe anymore, she took her kids to the United States and supported them in their new country alone. 

During the last day of the class, Marta, my mentor, distributed a worksheet with a picture of MLK. The title of the activity is  “I have a dream ..” This is when the widow from Brazil shared her dreams of learning more English, of how the United States helped her support her family and many more. Other students shared their dreams and Marta wrote them all on the board.

Halfway of all the sharing, my eyes started watering. These people are not the people who just aim to benefit from government entitlements or freeload from other Americans. They too have dreams to fulfill with even some of them with strong passion for helping others despite of their old age. In some of them, I share a common ground – desire to fulfill my goals, responsibilities and to affect more people with all my accomplishments. 

In them, the American dream lives on.