The Asian Way: An American Dream

As you may or may not know, I live in Georgia, (USA) not the other Georgia, near a famous site, Stone Mountain. The peak of the mountain is approximately 1600' above sea level, thus making it perfect for a nice , relatively easy' morning hike. For almost every day for the past 2 years, I have hiked this mountain and met some of the most wonderful people. Most all of these wonderful people have an amazing story!

On a recent morning hike, I ran into my friend Ann. Ann is a young Asian woman who is beautiful, well educated, always friendly. I had met her almost a year ago and talked with her a number of times during that time although we had never really had an in-depth conversation.

On this morning, I began discussing my desire to do some work with some of the young men from single parent households that I often encounter. (My son Christian, is a 7 year old 2nd grade student in the local system system and I get to see many of his classmates and hear about their issues.)

As Ann and I walked and talked, she began to share her own family's story.. Her father had come to the U.S.A. for a time, during the Korean War, and saw something here that made him go back to Korea and announce to this wife that America was where he wanted the family of three children and to live; it is where he saw his opportunity to achieve his dreams and the dream he had for his family.

Ann explained that her Mom and Dad proceeded to sell everything that they owned, including the family's car, in order to get to America. In spite of selling everything, the family still had to make a loan from Korean Air Lines (KAL) in order to afford the airline tickets to get to the U.S.( It actually took several years before they could pay off the loan to KAL.)

Upon arrival in the U.S., they made the decision to move to the Atlanta (Georgia) area. At that time, in the early 1970's, there was a very small Asian community here and most of them were not Korean. The family settled in the Lawerenceville area of Atlanta and both the parents took jobs that they could find; one working in one area and the other working quite a distance away,in another part of town. Her father would have to be at work at 7:00am and the mother, around the same time; in a different part of town and a distance away. The family owned only one car and the only solution was for the father to drive the mother to her work place where she would wait, outside and in the dark, until someone arrived to open the place for workers. The children, Ann and her brothers and sisters, with the help of the oldest, prepared themselves and went to school. This went on throughout their elementary school careers.

Well her parents worked and worked and saved and saved until an opportunity was presented to her father to take a 'better' job with a Small Business; a fruit stand in the Atlanta Municipal Market in downtown Atlanta. Several years later, the opportunity was presented to 'invest' in a Small Business of their own, in the same Municipal Market! Their many years of hard work paid off and they were eventually able to 'Buy' another location, in the same Municipal Market. Ann told me of the many, many days and nights that the entire family would spend working in the family business. There were many times when their friends and classmates were out having fun and 'hanging out' when she and her siblings were doing the 'grunt' work, at the Municipal Market Store. (Once, when her father took sick and could no longer work, her sister had to withdraw from college in order to drive the truck to pick up fruit from the State Farmers Market each day!)

Eventually, her father passed away, but her mother along with the rest of the family continued to operate the business. All of the children completed their college education; Ann graduated from Georgia Tech with an Engineering Degree! (Ga. Tech is one of the nation's best engineering schools.)

The family finally sold the businesses at the Atlanta Market, but 'invested' in another Small Business; the Dry Cleaning Business. While they no longer had to lift the heavy fruit baskets and trays, the work of running a family dry cleaning business is still hard work!

Over the years, her mother became one of the largest and greatest benefactors for the Korean Community in Atlanta and for her church!

I share this story because it was such a powerful one for me. I was awe struck, as Ann shared it with me. Their story speaks volumes about what's possible in this country. It made me proud of her, her family and of their being 'outstanding' examples of a family realizing 'The American Dream'!