Children of Immigrants: Why Success is Important

Being a child of immigrants and being an immigrant myself there was a sense of going above and beyond the norm. Being from the Philippines it was easy to see all the privileges I had in America simply by living and seeing the abject poverty and having the self-awareness of how life in America wasn’t as bad as it was in the motherland.

My dad was from Manila, Philippines and lived in a neighborhood where drugs and violent crime were rampant. My mom on the other hand, was from a small town in the province of Dumaguete, Philippines. My parents struggles of overcoming poverty and coming to America for a better life was something that was always in the back of my mind.

After spending 10 years in a mountain town in Virginia, and a year in Washington, D.C. my family saved enough money and moved to Bethesda, Maryland, an affluent Washington D.C. suburb. The neighborhood I grew up in was filled with children of immigrants like myself; mostly embassy families and children of diplomats. There was a sense of community and bond that we shared. We were the children of foreigners and we were proud of our heritage and at the same time proud of being American.

Children of immigrants often place more emphasis on hard work and careeer success than the general public because they realize that many are undermined, under appreciated, and overlooked, and education and success is the ultimate equalizer.

When people often ask me why do I want to be successful? — I want to be succesful so that my family’s struggle of coming to America didn’t come in vain. I want to be succesful so that I can be an example that a Filipino kid like me can make it. I want to be succesful so that I have freedom to be who I want to be.