"From a Bowl of Cereal to Desk Full of Papers"

            Its six o'clock, dinner is ready, and the table is set.  The dog comes running inside the house from a long day of playing in the leaves while father was outside raking them.  In the meanwhile mother is inside preparing dinner; salad, chicken, mashed potatoes, and even dessert!  My sister and I are helping mother put all the food out on the table. Reality check -- This is not my family!

            It’s three o’clock and my sister and I are coming home from the bus.  There is no babysitter home to make us lunch and help us do homework, and our mom is not yet home either.  At six, we heat up the dinner that was prepared by our mom at seven in the morning before she left for work.  By seven or eight, our mom comes home, makes us a little something else to eat, and makes sure our work is done and that we are ready for bed.  After we have been asleep for several hours already, my father comes home from work and eats his dinner.  As much as we would have liked there to have been, my family never had the time to all sit down together to eat, and discuss our day at the dinner table.

            Growing up, and even now in adolescence, my family is not like one of the perfect American households seen today on commercial television.  My father and my mother, the strongest people I've ever known, put their entire lives on the line for my sister and me.  They packed up their lives into two suitcases, and then made the biggest move of their lives; a change in address from one country to another; Russia to America.

Both my father and my mother work exceptionally hard to provide a high quality living for both my sister and me.  As a result, I hear the same old phrase day following day in their slight accent, “Polina, you have to grow up and make something good of yourself...you can not work yourself as hard as we do...  you have to study hard and work even harder...” 

            There is no other way to put it: my parents are my inspiration.  All of my motivation originates from their daily fatigue.  I seldom see my father because of the amount of hours he works.  I constantly see my mother coming home tired and then still doing chores around the house.  As much as I try to help in any way possible, I never feel comfortable in my skin knowing how much they are doing for me.   They gave up their time for leisure and relaxation, their chance for excessive hours of sleep and above all, their chance to enjoy their life without any cares and worries, for me.

            I am an incredibly lucky girl for in my genes runs the same motivation, dedication, and energy they have.  I put as much energy as I can into everything I do, and try to perfect it.  Balancing school, homework, an after school job, community service and exercise while striving for achievement is now always easy.  Yet I have found that it is a much simpler task to accomplish when having someone to admire and look up to.       I look into the future and I find myself bombarded with phone calls, faxes, mail and cliental appointments.  It is six o’clock and my secretary is walking into my office, I tell her that I will be leaving in half an hour.  I am no longer in my kitchen fixing myself a bowl of cereal; I am now getting ready to leave my office, stop by my parent’s house, and go home.  It is now my turn to work hard, and help my parents they way they have helped me, the tables are turned around, and I’m loving it.  I am finally beginning to feel like all the hardships my parents have ever went through, they went through for a reason.