I grasped the value of material objects and the importance of an outstanding work ethic from an early age without even realizing I had learned such lessons. Anytime my siblings and I wanted anything, my parents followed it with stories about how when my dad was in school in India he only had two pairs of pants, or how my mom came to America with her family with only $20. My siblings and I always followed this with a dramatic eye roll, and a response somewhere along the lines of "well our generation is different and times have changed." For us, these were just stories of their past that we had no emotional connection to, and it became easy to ignore the fact that these experiences my parents had are the reason I am living a life of no worries today.

However this year has been a major reminder of how important it is not to forget the sacrifices my parents have made to get me where I am. My life's stresses have been about choosing between a chai tea and a soy latte, about choosing the right college for myself, and the choice to pick from over 10 pairs of pants. I have choices, but at my age, my parents were freshly married from an arranged marriage and settling into a foreign country. I get to live a life where I can whine about not getting the coffee I want and not having W-Fi, while my parents were attempting to build their entire lives out of broken English, and climbing the ladder of prejudice so my siblings and I could have a worry free life.

Throughout life, most people of my age I have had countless arguments of low and high magnitude with my parents, and countless times where I was right but they would not admit it or vice versa. However there are very few in-between moments when I pondered how much my parents have sacrificed for us to be here, or when I told them I am grateful they raised me to work hard. If I knew barely any English and someone handed me $20 to go make a life for myself in America, I would go running in the other direction. I live in fear about having to choose between grad school and starting my career after next semester, so I could not imagine how I would mentally react if my only sole choice was to move to a foreign land to obtain success.

My parents have given me the opportunity to succeed and fail, but mostly succeed, because an Indian household failure is not an option. However, the greatest gift my parents have provided me with demonstrating that an honest work ethic and pure ambitions do pay off into beautiful results. Although I have been grateful all my life for the sacrifices my parent have made for me, I think it never settled inside me how different my life would be if my parents had not put all of their fears aside to build a life in America. Working hard and being ambitious are not skills I inherited on my own, but lessons that my parents have carefully sewn into my mind by setting themselves as the examples.

So, in essence, this is just a large epiphany and reminder that my parents are as cool as it gets in the definition of cool. They make our lives so comfortable to the point that we do not even know what it means to live a life without basic necessities, and they deserve all the applause and pants in the world for the sacrifices they have made to provide this lifestyle. I am really glad they took that risk on the $20, because today I would not have the choice to have options, and I would not be able to tell them, "Hey, thank you for being an immigrant parent."