The End
To all with my gratitude and respect,
I mark the end of a chapter:
My family was from rural China and worked as sustenance rice farmers. At the height of the Cultural Revolution, my father escaped his impoverished village and evaded machine gunfire to swim down a river to stole way on a ferry boat to Hong Kong to find passage to the United States. Here in San Diego, he worked in a restaurant kitchen for 12 hours a day for everyday of the last 25 years. Through his hard work and well earned money he financed my college education. Today, he sees the fruition of his hard work and the hope that I never have to endure the hardships he faced. It was by accident of birth that I find myself ever having the opportunity of being photographed in the picture above. This was an American Dream coming true.
Today marked the 5 years I have spent at UCSD obtaining this overpriced and overrated degree that supposedly tell the world that I have an education and that am worth more than $6.75/hr. The truth is I’m not sure if I am ever going to be ready for life. I question whether all this money and time spent has actually helped me gain any skills to get me ready for what’s ahead. In fact, I am very much apprehensive about where I will be in the next few months of my life. With nearly 20 years of school coming to an imminent end, it is rather frightening to imagine where I will be next.
To family, friends, lab partners, all you people on live journal that bother to read this entry, Osaka, Panera, Starbucks, Shoguns, World of WarCraft, AOL Instant Messenger, Red Bull, and to my grandparents who are no longer alive to see me walk across the stage at commencement, I thank you for everything. Each and everyone one of you that I have come to know has, at least on some level, made an impact on my life. You all have somehow inspired and molded me into the person that I am today and I’d like to commemorate this day to all of you. For without your guidance, support, and criticism I would have never seen this come to reality.
Better Late Than Never,
Ray