Years ago, a writing professor told me, “When the work gets hard, remember who you’re doing it for.”

This is my family in our backyard in Riverside, California, circa 1990. Some are still alive, many have passed, but all endured the pain of leaving their home, their friends, and their families, in order to give me a chance for a better life in the United States. They endured the graveyard shift, being robbed on more than one occasion, and hate on a routine basis. 

They did it all so they could give me the chance to pursue whatever I wanted, which was to become an audio journalist. Today, I get to live my dream. And when the work gets hard, which it often does, I try to think of them. Most of my work is not about them, but I like to think the practice of me making the work, from cutting tape to pursuing a lead, honors them.