Yia Lee

My dad was born in Laos, from a very poor family way up in the mountain. His parents could barely make enough for the family to live off with. His dad worked night and days just to get food for the family. While his mom watch the kids, cooked, and cleaned the house. He was the third oldest after his older brother and older sister. Growing up was hard for my dad.

At the age 7 my dad had already had a job, helping his parents and older siblings with the farming. Farming is what my dad did mostly everyday. The faster you got done the faster you'd get to play. They had to harvest their own food because going to buy it in the city would take a long time and plus they didn't have that much money to buy it. When they were not farming anymore my dad and his older brother went hunting with their dad, hunting anything they saw to get meat for the family. Sometimes if they got lucky the family would have all kinds of meat for dinner: birds, monkey, wild pig, wild chicken, anything that’s out there. If that day they didn't hunt anything, they would just eat what they had.

My dad had always wanted to go to school like all the rest of the boys. Going to school he had always dreamed of, but his parents couldn't afford it. Even though he didn't even complain, but kept it to himself. He didn't mind because he knew that they weren't from a rich family.

In 1981 my dad met the woman of his dreams. Her name was Mee Xiong. At that time the Vietnam War was still going on. Struggling my dad and mom managed to get to Thailand. Living in Thailand for a couple of years then off to America they decided to come, leaving all his older and younger siblings and parents behind. My dad wanted his family to have a better life, that's why he decided to come to the United States.

Everyday my dad would work day and night just to support the family. My dad will never complain about anything but knows that it was his job to provide food, shelter for the family. My dad has all it takes to be a dad and that's why he is my hero. I look up to him as a role model and think to myself that one day I would like to be like him.