Cookie Lee

My mother and father emigrated from China to America in 1948. My brother and I were born soon after, making us both the first US-born members of our family. Upon coming to US, our parents worked extremely hard to make a living, and, as such, sacrifices were made to ensure a better life for all of us.

Our father worked seven days a week, and our mother would work all day. I remember waving good-bye to my mother every morning as she drove off to work, then I walked to school alone with a house key dangling on a chain around my neck. After school, I would come home to an empty house. When my mother finally came home, she had to clean and prepare dinner and didn’t have time to help me with my homework or play with me. Looking back, I realise that this helped mold my independence and resourcefulness as I had to do things on my own.

But I was resentful. In the mid-1950s, everyone else’s mother stayed home and went to the PTA meetings and school field trips, and I didn’t want to be different. I also remember having only one birthday party as a child; my parents were always too busy working. I vowed that when a parent, I would do things differently.

Since making a living was always a struggle for my parents, education was very important to them. My father believed that you could use education to make your life better: “People can take away your house or your possessions, but they can never take away what you have learned.”