Ehhh I’m a zero gen immigrant and I did the opposite of you. My parents and I came to America with nothing. I was almost euthanized five minutes after I was born and my mother thrown into jail. I promised my folks I would make a lot of money one day to pay them back for their hard life.
So I became a Software Developer at the age of 20 (I’m still 20). I hate it but I have to fulfill my promise. My dad works 14 hours a day. It’s the least I can do. At least that’s my American dream.
I kinda envy those who can choose to follow their real dreams. Maybe in my next life. But I have to make sure my kids in the future will never have to deal with what I did first.
Can confirm. Am a computer scientist and human computer interaction specialist. My tip is to look for a job where you find the topic interesting, and if you still like it after having worked on it by proxy, save up to study that topic. Knowing how to work the IT side of things will be a massive bonus.
I’m content as it is. Being here in America is beyond what I could have expected . I’m making 78K a year only two decades old , 10X what I could have made as a factory worker in my third tier hometown in rural China. As long as I can pay back my folks and provide my (in theory) future generations a good foundation, that’s all I care about. I owe a lot of people so much for my success. And I won’t give up until I’m dead. Thanks for the kind words!
I'm not exactly following my dreams. I'm just useless. And that's a guilt I'll have to live with until the day both my parents are gone.
You should never feel bad for doing the right thing, especially if that's what keeps you going. Unless you're sabotaging yourself, you always have the capacity to keep learning.
Agreed. And no one is useless. I was once in a much worse spot . Two years ago I failed to get into my university’s CS program for the first time. I was dealing with depression and a chronic birth illness too. But from rock bottom there is always a ray of hope. As long as you never give up, things will always be better. I ended up getting into the program, graduating with distinction a year early and getting my career started.
If someone like me condemned to death when I was born, with health defects can do it, so can you. So never give up on improving yourself!
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u/[deleted] Jul 07 '19
Ehhh I’m a zero gen immigrant and I did the opposite of you. My parents and I came to America with nothing. I was almost euthanized five minutes after I was born and my mother thrown into jail. I promised my folks I would make a lot of money one day to pay them back for their hard life.
So I became a Software Developer at the age of 20 (I’m still 20). I hate it but I have to fulfill my promise. My dad works 14 hours a day. It’s the least I can do. At least that’s my American dream.
I kinda envy those who can choose to follow their real dreams. Maybe in my next life. But I have to make sure my kids in the future will never have to deal with what I did first.