Brain Vomit #4: Resilience

Resilience:

Money solves all problems right? What about when you don’t have money? Can you not solve the problem then? Of course you can! It will be a lot harder but if you are committed to making it work you will figure it out. You kinda have to. I was born in Argentina. Pinamar to be exact. A beach town off the coast of the Buenos Aires Province. My family immigrated to the US in March of 2001, I was 14 then. It was only supposed to be for a year but after the Argentine economy collapsed in October of 2001 we stayed. As time went on our visas expired and things would get more and more complicated for us. No we were Illegal immigrants, and during the Bush years being an Illegal stripped you off many rights that people take for granted. Back in Argentina my dad’s business went bankrupt as well as the company my mom worked for. It was a hard time, but we were convinced that starting from scratch in the US would be a lot easier than starting from scratch in Argentina. At least that’s what my parents believed, after all they lived through dictatorships and many recessions before giving the United States a chance. Los Angeles looks very promising in the movies. This recession was the worst they’ve seen yet. Growing up as an illegal immigrant in the United States forced me to become resilient, to build a very thick layer of skin. Avoid excuses and get things done. Because I couldn’t complain, no one cared for what I had to say. Or if i complained they would get defensive. “If you don’t like it here why don’t you go back to where you came from?”. I really wanted to, but we couldn’t. Maybe it was because we wouldn’t know what would wait for us back home. Maybe because the opportunities that awaited us in the future were worth the struggle now. Maybe because I am a coward. All I really wanted then was to be normal, to be exposed to the same opportunities as everyone else.
Twenty years later I made it, I am a successful small business owner. I make good money in an industry that is famous for not making money. I am going to marry the girl of my dreams. I drive a nice car (my Prius Prime is nice to me, ok?). I live comfortably in Los Angeles, the best city in the world. The future is bright for me. I worked very hard to get to this point and I’m going to keep going. I started with a huge disadvantage. Being fed the scraps. Resilience is all I got. I have too much momentum built up to be stopped. Someone or something with more money and more resources doesn’t scare me. I’ll try and reiterate until I figure it out. I’m comfortable in the struggle. I’ll outwork you to death.