This is last year’s story, but I think it’s too good not to share.
A young man in Sydney, Daniel Hu, did very well in his final year subjects at school. Like many young people gifted with some intelligence, he worked hard and was able to reap the rewards.
Last December the Sydney Morning Herald published a comment he submitted to the paper. Yes, it shows how hard he worked, but more than that, the young man publicly thanks his parents for their support.
His parents are not educated and can barely speak English. They work as cleaners. They lived well below the poverty line while Daniel was growing up, but they did their utmost to support their son with his education.
Daniel writes:
“My dad, despite not knowing a word of English, used a Chinese-to-English dictionary to help me with my homework during primary school, a task that took most students 10 minutes to complete but took me three hours.”
His father worked hard during the day, juggling multiple jobs, and became his personal tutor in the evening. During his last two crucial years of high school, his father’s body packs it in and he ends up in hospital.
“I knew that no matter what, I would never be able to repay them. Never. But that didn’t mean I was not going to attempt to do so,” Daniel writes.
“And so, I took it upon myself to study as hard as possible for the HSC. I wanted them to be proud of me.”
Daniel ends his public letter with “Thank you mum and dad. I love you.”
If you have some time today, feel free to read his story here. It’s a story of grit and determination. But most of all it’s a story about love — a parent’s love for their child and the impact that has on the next generation.
Since his story went public, they say the phones at the media outlet started ringing. They were calls of support for the young man. Offers of financial help started coming in and soon Daniel was able to get a job at a law firm to support him through University.
Featured image by Clem Onojeghuo on Unsplash
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