The Solution to Poverty – Socially Responsible Parents

My parents arrived in America 29 years ago, five years before I was born, with nothing but the lint in their pockets. Their story is not one of fulfilling the “Great American Dream” or going from “Rags to Riches”. They weren't heir to some hidden family fortune, nor did they miraculously win the lottery. Actually, my father still steals paper towels from work to make sure we have napkins for the dinner table. And two days ago, we stuffed my mother's purse full of ketchup packets from the McDonald's because we were running low at home. Are we impoverished? Absolutely not. We have a roof over our head, shoes under our feet and a very modest, but stable family income. After my mother has recently been laid off, my father is the solely responsible for paying car payments, mortgage, bills, and the daunting idea of successfully putting his three sons through college. If anyone reading this knew we collect rain water in five-gallon buckets and trash bins to do our laundry with, it would be a seen as an indicator of poverty. However, I am actually typing this on my MacBook, connected to the internet, and sitting rather comfortably in the air-conditioned school library, or at least as comfortable as one can be in a rickety wooden chair. I am the first one in my family to graduate college and am pursuing a higher education with a doctorate in pharmacy from the University of Charleston, and concurrently pursuing an MBA degree from Northeastern University. Although I will find myself in the grips of the federal loan servicing agency upon graduate, I am will not be begging for change on the streets or awoken in the middle of the night due to an empty stomach. In less than 30 years, my parents escaped their impoverished, Communist pressed village outside of Han-Noi, Vietnam and are in the processing of raising a family