Monday, December 8, 2003

Having failed the California Contractors State License Board exam on three different occasions, I didn’t think my father would want to be asked, “So, how did you do this time?” I feared there would be bad news. I evaded the subject for as long as I could.

I heard him talking to Guera, telling her something like: “Cada vez que iba, me chingaban” — “every time I’d show up to take the test, they’d find a way to screw me.” To me that sounded like the beginning of a “I’m fed up with this ****” speech. I entered the room where they were talking, and I asked, “So does that mean that you’re giving up?” He said it was too late for that now… he had passed the test. 🙂

This is a lesson on persistence. My father, with his pre-high-school education, managed to pass a test that I — a junior in college — would have struggled with, too, in a language still foreign to him (formal English). It was a struggle that he finally overcame. He pimped that test. Quitting was not an option.

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