An excerpt from my journal entry on April 24, 2023:
I’m graduating college with my dream job!! Oh, I was so scared and stressed this semester just wondering where I’d finally end up. Would four years of consistent success, hard work and ambition culminate in something lasting? I always expected things to work out somehow, but things have fallen into place even more perfectly than I could’ve imagined.
I’m going to be an internet culture reporter for NBC News. I’ll get to work with a team and manager that I already absolutely adore. NBC’s entire newsroom is full of people I trust, admire and even laugh with on a daily basis. I truly feel at home here. How crazy is that? Also, they gave me the choice of moving to either New York or L.A. To everybody’s surprise but mine, I picked L.A!
I was about to head into class when I got the job offer. So when I walked back in after hearing the news that was literally about to change my life, I couldn’t even scream or jump or cry. But as soon as I was out, I began calling all of my best friends. I dialed my parents, too. I usually have no interest in sharing my life updates with them, but this was different.
My dad actually cried. He told me I was going to make him smile/laugh himself awake at night (it’s a lot funnier in Chinese). He said that when he worked in journalism at a local Taiwanese paper, even having an NBC reporter in the same room was such a huge deal.
He would never get there, he said, because he didn’t speak English and never went to college. He didn’t have a chance in this industry. But for his daughter to make it (without any connections, he emphasized) is his greatest joy. He said he couldn’t wait to tell all of his old colleagues.
My mom’s reaction was a lot more muted. That’s just her personality. But a little while later, she called me back — it was her birthday, by the way — and told me this news was the best gift I could’ve possibly given her.
It’s not lost on me that I’ll be making triple what my parents do. I’ll be able to pick whatever I want at the grocery store without scrutinizing price labels. I’ll be able to live in an apartment that gives me my own bathroom. I’ll be able to buy my first-ever car. I’m about to taste the financial freedom I’ve dreamed of for myself and my family.
It’s hard to even wrap my head around that. I could cry again.
