Hard work leads to succes

By Johnny Tran

We are often told that if you work hard enough, “that work will lead to success.”

My mom, Tiana Cao, who is married to my dad Jason Van, knows what it means to work hard. She works two jobs: one as a manager of a milk tea store and the other as an employee at a coffee shop. She’s also raising four kids and is taking care of my grandma.

Getting by is difficult enough, and success always seems out of grasp, no matter how hard she works.

Tiana will be working from 6 in the morning till 5 in the afternoon every day. Every time she gets home, she gets very exhausted and just wants to either rest up on her bed or hold my baby sister, Fall.

She moved to California from Vietnam when she was 10 years old with her sister, Ly Cao, and her mother, Kimanh Pham.

Johnny: “Were you able to settle down once you moved to Cali?”

Tiana: “I came to California when I was 10 years old so I don’t remember anything back from my country. Not much, still little. This just seems to be my first country because I don’t have any friends or anybody I remember from Vietnam.”

At the age of 16, she started looking for a job. After a long search, she managed to find one later and it was at Burger King.

Johnny: “Back then when you were around my age, what type of jobs did you work at? And how many hours did you work for?”

Tiana: “I worked part-time, Burger King after school and on the weekends as well.”

Although she was working every day; especially during the weekdays, she still managed to hang on and moved forward towards her life.

For her dream job, she wanted to be a Radiation Oncologist, a type of doctor that specializes in giving radiation therapy to treat cancer. Tiana had a successful high school career and was able to get into a good college to acquire that job. However, she gave up that dream.

Johnny: “Were there any similarities between me and you when you were a student?”

Tiana: “I don't get an F and I never miss a single class, I always get perfect attendance.”

Instead, she focused on helping her family rather than aiming for her future career. When she was in her 20s, she started working at a nearby cafe around 10 to 15 minutes away from our house as a full-time worker from 7 am to 5 pm in the afternoon.

My mom could have become someone with a brighter and better career considering how much of a successful student she was, with a lot of future careers in the way, but she instead wanted to help out her family rather than herself.

When I think about that, it made me realize how hard my mom has worked, and yet she threw away all of that chance for her family.

Now, she works at a local cafe and makes about 16 dollars an hour. And she’s been working there for 10 years.

Ever since then, there have been times where my mom struggles with paying our house rents or even our internet bills and she would always be in argument with my dad about the bills.

Johnny: “Every time you argue with dad, how does that make you feel in those situations?”

Tiana: “It’s normal, it happens every other day.”

Her words resonated with me and it really tells me she always expects an argument coming any time and any day, and that she is ready for it to happen.

Johnny: “Has there ever been a time when you felt useless when it comes to not doing as much as a mom for your kids or in general as being the “man in the house?”

Tiana: “I’m the man in the house so I don’t feel useless.”

It makes me wonder if she is just tired of those moments happening and if she just wants Jason to be an understanding person. I wonder if she ever considers that he should be the one that should be the “man of the house” instead of her.

Overall though, Tiana was able to live through her life with me, my dad, and four other daughters as well.

It's difficult for her and my father to care for us, especially when they have five children to look after. But, there will be a time where she enjoys seeing her children grow up as years go by. Sooner or later they will be full grown adults.

Johnny: “What is the memory that you remember that you truly had the best time with your kids or the rest of the family?

Tiana: “Is everytime I look at my phone, the kids have fun and play in front of me.”

When I heard that, that made me happy because it lets me know that she at least has something to be happy about that’s going to happen to her every time she comes home from work.

This whole experience that I learned from my mother and her success was really encouraging and has taught me that I too can achieve anything that I want but, all it takes is hard work and dedication to get those.