The Land of Opportunity

中文版請按此

Once again it's almost Chinese new year. Once again I, a reporter for a Chinese-language media, found myself writing stories about Chinese American gambling and buying lottery as part of the Chinese new year tradition.

At a lucky retailer at East Los Angeles, I asked a Chinese elder who bought a lot of lottery tickets, "do you think you'll win?" He grinned, "Well, I have hope. Well, it's America--it's the land of opportunity."

The land of opportunity. Well said. I don't believe in lottery, but I believe in land of opportunity.

I came to the States as a broke international student. By day I worked as a camera assistant at a local TV production incorporation; by night I worked as a overnight clerk a convenience store. In between I studied hard to keep two merit scholarships-one from Boston University and one from Asian American Journalist Association. I met my then boyfriend and now husband, another broke international student, in this country. He worked as a teaching assistant at the university. He had a easier life than I did, but still, his pocket is often empty. Food on our dinner table was always simple; the good thing is, we never had to watch our waist.

Upon our graduation he found a job in San Diego. I followed him from Boston to California and then found myself a job in Los Angeles. For broke international student, moving was easy--we just stuffed everything we had into a big cardboard box and then shipped it to our new place.

In California we rented a tiny apartment, all the furniture we had was a mattress and that big cardboard box. That box served as my desk in the day and our dinner table in the evening. At night we snuggled on that mattress and talked about our dreams. Our apartment was empty but we were full of hope.

Within one year we were married. We got married with no house, no car, no wedding party, no engagement ring. But we had each other.

And America, the land of opportunity, treated us well. During the fist year of our marriage we purchased a house. The second year we bought a car. On our third-year-anniversary, he presented me a 1.25 Carat diamond ring (with our wedding date engraved, which I found funny). Now we're married for four years. I'm currently 26 weeks pregnant and we're excitedly expecting our first baby.

We were not especially lucky or anything like that. We were just especially hard workers. And America treat hard workers well. At work I've interviewed Tilapia farmer, orchid farmer, restaurant owner, and many other successful Chinese American business owners. They all came to the States with empty hands and made a good fortune here.

My husband and I had nothing by that time we got married. Now we had everything, or at least everything we've ever dreamed of when we got married. The only bad thing is we now have so much food on our dinner table that we had to start to watch our waist. We knew we wouldn't have achieved so many goals in such a short period of time if we were in our hometown. America has indeed offered good opportunities for us to fulfill our dreams.

This is the 10th year since we moved to America. We expect even more bright future to come and we're full of hope for our unborn baby. Because we believe in the land of opportunity.