Seeing the World in a New Light

Seeing the world as a child is a game

paved with joys masking what lies behind.

As a child, I could never understand

what stood in front of me, to the struggle I was blind.

I simply couldn’t see my parents’ tremendous load

they had to carry to get where we are here.

Risking everything by coming to America with nothing 

but the clothes on their back, our future seemed unclear.

My parents concealed their hardships well

as I naïvely began to grow. 

I took everything for granted: my school, my friends, my life

I did not even realize my perfect life was all a show. 

But it was. Life kicked me in the face.

It destroyed any dreams that I thought could be achieved.

I dealt with failure after failure,

until the fact that life is not easy became earnestly believed.

And I couldn’t have overcome this without the people around me

I had to look outside myself and turn to my family

It took their help to finally realize that

there is beauty in struggle, in hardship there is glee.

I came home crying one night, I was thirteen

and my grandmother scooped me up in her arms and said,

“In your life everything will seem to go wrong,

but you have to be tough or you might as well be dead.

Your attitude always determines your altitude,

that is the most important thing you need to know.”

When she passed away, I will never forget 

those words that changed me, that made me grow.