When I was a little kid growing up, I have to admit that I was pretty selfish. I was an only child with no father figure around. When you’re an only child, all the attention goes to you. I got all the toys, love, and affection from both my Mom and Godmother who raised me. We were not poor when I was living in Olongapo City. I would say just a typical middle class family trying to make it day by day. But wow was I a selfish little kid… until a volcano nearby decided to blow up and change my ways.
When Mt. Pinatubo erupted in the early 90’s, it was what I would call a slow burn. At first, we were going to school but noticed that it was raining ashes—more like sprinkling ashes then it progressively got worse. When I 
say worse I mean full blown shower of sand mixed with ashes. Included in the madness would be flash flooding, lightning, thunder, and earthquakes. There was a point of time where I didn’t see the sun for 2 weeks. My mom was in America at this time and my Grandma and Grandpa (bless his soul) heard about the crazy things going on and decided to take me away from the city to live in the province with them.
Hardship and a Time to Grow
I never really knew how good I had it until I lived with my Lolo and Lola. First off there was no running water in the house. If we wanted to have some drinking water for the week, I had to travel three miles, through the mud (I had no shoes) to make sure that we had something to drink. Another way would be pumping water out of the ground.
We would take a bath in the river and wash all of our clothes and dishes. We had no TV but we did have a radio to keep us entertained. Every Wednesday, there was a radio broadcast of a scary story at my Aunt’s house. I lived with my grandparents for two years and half the time I had no slippers.
I walked around bare footed and I didn’t own a toothbrush to my name. Some days we would barely have anything thing to eat so my Grandma would just cook some rice and she would sprinkle a little salt on top to give the rice some flavor. Other times we would have no food at all and I would go to sleep hungry. It sucks being hungry. I felt like I was always hungry. I wanted to make a change so I decided, at 10 years old to get a job. I was walking the neighborhood shouting, “Ice candy!! Come on and get your Ice candy!” every day for four months. Ice candy seller: My first side hustle.
I had to hustle! At least now, I was able to get some food and snacks if I wanted to. I wasn’t making much; I’d say a day’s work would earn me 40-50 pesos. In US conversion, that would be about $1.25/day. Those two years of my young life with my Grandparents really taught me the value of hard work. I learned to appreciate what we had, even though we had very little.
What I also cherished was the time I spent with my family; especially my Grandpa and my Uncle Escoy. At 10 years old my Lolo passed away. 10 years later, Uncle Escoy was stabbed to death. I’m saddened and my heart breaks even to this day when I even mention my Uncle’s name. I had a bond with him that’s hard to describe.
Most of America’s youth have never felt that kind of hardship. In America, younger kids feel that they are entitled to everything. I’m not sure if it’s the marketing portrayed on TV or crap they read on the internet. I see kids no longer exercising, with their faces buried to their phone. I see kids who don’t seem to want to do anything in their life after high school and expect that success would just drop on their lap.
That’s why, I feel those newly minted adults who have graduated high school, that are not going to college full-time, and are living at home, should be helping out their parents. I was out of the house by the time I was 18 years old but I still felt that my parents should have pushed me harder to help out around the house.
The biggest piece that was missing was the fact that I didn’t know the why.
Why did I need to help out?
To torture me? Of course not! I needed to clean the house because Mom works eight hours a day at a soup factory to put food on the table. The car needs to be washed because that is our primary transportation for everything we do. The house and dishes need to get cleaned because Mom paid for rent, bought the food and needed her son’s assistance.
That portion was not really clear to me as a kid because it wasn’t explained. Parents today should make that clear. I’m only giving my perspective on this matter looking back as a young kid. Today, my mom receives automatic payments from my sister and she’s able to help out financially every month. Bottom line is that if you’re over 18 and working, it’s time to step up and help the family. Find something we are passionate about and pursue our dreams at an early age instead of lounging around at Momma’s house until we’re 30. We should not waste our golden ticket.
Hitting the Jackpot
I wasn’t born in America but I still felt like I hit the biggest jackpot of them all! Going through the struggle in my homeland made me realize that being humble and working hard to achieve my dreams can get me to a place higher than I’ve ever imagined. I always tell my friends that everything is hard before it gets easy. Working hard to earn something has more meaning than having something handed to us. Without earning it, we will feel entitled to it for no viable reason. If you were born in America, congratulations! You won the lottery. Even Warren Buffett, the “Oracle of Omaha” and one of the wealthiest people on the planet would agree.
“I won the lottery the day I emerged from the womb by being in the United States instead of in some other country where my chances would have been way different.”
-Warren Buffett
Imagine if you were born in Afghanistan or even Syria! Our chances of succeeding would be incredibly small. All the bombings and terror happening in both of those countries, we would be lucky to survive the next day. In America, all we need is basic internet, passion, and desire to succeed. Even the poorest people can become successful. Need more proof? Here are a few more people who you may have heard of that were homeless at some point.
Michael Oher: Lived on the streets while his mother was addicted to crack cocaine. He currently plays left tackle for the Carolina Panthers football team. His inspirational story was also made into a movie called “The Blindside.”
Steve Harvey: As a struggling comedian, he lived in his 1976 Ford Tempo for three years until he got his big break at Showtime at the Apollo. His current net worth: $85 million.
TJ Perkins: A young Filipino struggling to make it in the wrestling business was evicted multiple times. He kept the first key he was evicted from as a reminder that he will never go back to that point of his life again. Today, he is the new and current WWE Cruiserweight Champion.
What makes these people similar to you and me? They were born in the United States. Let me add to that because not all were born here. They made it to the United States. We are the lucky ones and let’s not ever forget that. The American Dream still exists.
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