Best Parent Award

Being a good parent doesn’t require instructions or a manual, it comes naturally. I live in small deprived village with my wife and son, making no more than one dollar an hour. Living in a small house, with barely any room to walk, I had to face the challenges of raising a kid, surviving off of little food, and making no more than two dollars an hour. Winning “Best Parent Award” is one of the greatest accomplishments in my life. I’ve been a parent to my son for 12 years, and I gave him the best I could afford. Every year we deal with struggles, money being the greatest one. My wife and I have always wanted more kids but we decided that it was going to be too much looking at how much we sacrifice now for just one. Pearls are how people become wealthy in our village, next to what they work for.

In my village, and most likely any other village, doctors are the most wealthy. There are accidents happening day to day, needing a doctor to cure the concern. Next to doctors are the teachers and the priests. I have been a teacher for 10 years, coming to school every morning, teaching kids and educating them. All the children who I teach and who I have taught consider me as a second father after theirs. Not only do I help them with school, but I also will help them with issues not relating to school. They will come to me for advice or even if a family member died and they need to express their feelings, which those actions shows they trust me as not only a teacher but a friend as well.

Aside from my job as a teacher, finding pearls is another part time job I work for. I once found a pearl that was like no other. I turned it in for money and was paid over two thousand dollars. Besides helping my family, I saved money for my son when he goes to college so that he can make a good living for his family someday. Sometimes he will doubt that he will be successful in the future. My son is currently in 6th grade and is about to go to middle school. The middle school closest to our town is Butler Middle School, one of the highest GPA ranks in our area. Every day he will come home from school, and work on more school work. He treats Butler as if it was Harvard University. As a teacher and father, I help him to succeed his goal of going there.

After his experience at Butler Middle School, he was ready for the challenge of High School in a nearby village. He would come home every day and have tons of homework for each of his classes, which he actually loved. By the second week he had made so many friends that he would see every weekend always doing different activities. He finished High School after two years because he was in all college classes, so there was no point to continue High School. Getting accepted to the second highest college in the U.S was an amazing moment for both him and me as well.

Whether it's dealing with kids at school, or even my own son, the privilege of accepting this award is an honor. Going through what I have gone through with my son and my teachings makes you view life differently, seeing the greater aspects of it. When my son was born, I thought that I wasn’t going to be able to give him enough and that I would fail at raising a child, but looking at where my son got to now, and how successful he is shows me that I succeeded in being a great parent.