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Me and my dad went out for a drive one night. We usually didn't talk much; the radio played loud, just the way we liked it. Besides, boys didn't need to talk much. But he always cared. He asked me about my day.
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"It was fine," I said. I took that math test I studied all week for. They served pizza for lunch, best day of the week. Oh, and a janitor gave me a hard time. But it's okay, he was just a janitor.
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My dad frowned.
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"Is that a bad thing?"
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"Well," I said, "Kinda. I mean, he's just a janitor."
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Something about that bothered my dad.
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"You're judging somebody because of his job."
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I shrugged.
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"Don't do that," he said. "Don't ever do that."
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See, to this day I'm not very comfortable in high society. My family is simple, it always has been. Everybody works- mom, dad, grandma, grandpa- and everybody does the best they can.
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"There isn't a job in the world that's beneath you," my dad said. "It's just a job."
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I thought about that.
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Nobody worked harder than my dad, after all. Fifty, sixty, seventy hours a week or more, often in pouring rain or blinding snow or in the dead of night. But he did it for me.
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And then I understood.
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He still works hard, even to this day. As for me? I write this on a balcony in an apartment in a different city, in a different country, on a different continent- all because my dad worked hard his whole life, and my grandfather before him did the same.
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A week from now I'll be back home, and I'll have to get up and go to work... I can't afford to sit and write all day, after all. I work a dead end job, really, no respect, no title; I'm paid to be little more than a servant. But that's not who I am, it's what I do.
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It's just a job, and I'm lucky to have it.
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See, I've learned that nobody is going to hand you anything. Nothing is free, after all.
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Nothing is fair, either. The system is against you, it was from the start.
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But the thing is, if you sit and complain then you won't get very far. Trust me, I've tried.
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So instead? I get up. I go to work. I read, I study, and I do the best I can with what I have. I'll never be the biggest, or the strongest, or the smartest, or even the nicest or the prettiest... But my family, mom, dad, grandma, grandpa, they all taught me that I can be the hardest working.
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That's just who I'll have to be.
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